Confusion at Zambezi Portland cement

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:39:24 +0000

Confusion surrounds the management of Zambezi Portland Cement after High Court Judge Lisimba nullified the appointment of Andrew Kamanga as Chief executive Officer who has continued to operate and has in the process dismissed lawyers representing the Directors who have been deported.

The ruling has since been ignored and Kamanga, who has continued to run the affairs of the company is being accused of selling cement for cash and not banking it into the accounts of the company.

In an application by the Zambezi Portland against Dr Rajan Mathani, Andrew Kamanga and the Inspector General of Police Ms Stella Libongani in which the plaintiffs demanded that the inspector general and her policemen stay away from the premises of Zambezi Portland and that having nothing to do with the management of the Plaintiff until further order of the court.

The application was supported by an affidavit sworn by Mwamba Kayula, Operations Manager of Zambezi Portland.

The affidavit in support shows that Rajan Mathani, with a view of circumventing the Supreme Court Judgement of 21st April, 2010 and the court order of 11th October, 2012 convened a meeting on 3rd December 2012 where he purported together with Peter Kanaganayagam and Ms Joan Craven appointed Mr Andrew Kamanga as chief Executive of the company.

The deponent claimed that Mr Kamanga was well aware of the orders made by the court and had been advised about them but had decided to disregard them.

“Andrew Kamanga has stated that he will not obey the court orders unless his name is specifically shown on the order itself.

“He purportedly dismissed employees of the company one such being chief security Officer Litwai.”

It has also been revealed that the police command had been aiding and betting the proposed contemnors to flout the courts rulings and orders and has since stationed more than a hundred militias at the plant.

And according to minutes of the emergency board meeting of the company held on the dated and only lasted for an hour, it was noted that after the deportation of the directors Antonio Ventriglia, Claudio Ventriglia and Manuela Sebastian, there was no senior management left to oversee the affairs of the company including accountability of operations, expenditure and revenue.The meeting also observed that under section 209 of the Companies

Act at least half of the directors’ of company including the MD were required to be resident in Zambia.

The emergency meeting also discussed the change of mandate holders and signatories to all the company’s banks accounts to avert disruption of the company’s business in view of the reported deportation.

The meeting then resolved to replace Kamanga and Peter Kang’ombe as sole mandate holders and signatories and were authorised to open additional Kwacha and Dollar accounts with First Alliance Bank, Ndola.