19/09/2025
DELTA MANAGER IN HOT SOUP: BLACK FARMERS CRY FOUL AS ONE WHITE FARMER MONOPOLISES BREWERS’ WASTE SUPPLY
Tempers are flaring in Harare’s farming community after shocking allegations emerged that Mr Victor Phiri, a senior manager at Delta Corporation’s Willowvale plant, is running a corrupt syndicate in the distribution of brewers’ spent grain (brewers’ waste).
For weeks, hundreds of black cattle farmers who have long depended on the nutritious by-product for feed claim they have been left stranded, while one white farmer, Mr. Ice Red Den, has been allowed to cart away truckloads without interruption.
“This is a scandal of the highest order,” fumed one farmer from Marirangwe
“We were told land reform was about empowering us, but what Delta is doing is the exact opposite. Hundreds of us are watching our cattle starve while one white farmer gets fat on what is supposed to be shared equally. It feels like we are back to colonial times.”
Another farmer from Goromonzi echoed the outrage: “Delta is reversing the gains of black empowerment. Our government has fought hard for President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030 of empowering local Zimbabweans.
Yet here we are, being sidelined by one of the biggest companies in the country because of corrupt favoritism.”
Inside sources at Delta revealed that this favoritism is not accidental.
“Phiri has always been known for his underhand deals,” whispered one insider.
“If you don’t pay up, you don’t get your share. This Red Den arrangement is different—he’s given a monopoly while the majority of farmers are shut out. It’s corruption dressed up as business.”
Another employee accused Mr. Phiri of personally benefitting from kickbacks, suggesting his unexplained wealth points to a long-running pattern of shady dealings.
“How does a manager afford brand-new luxury cars every year? He is selling out black farmers and enriching himself,” the insider said.
The development has sparked fears that Delta is not only failing farmers but also undermining national policies.
Farmers argue that such favoritism threatens food security, cattle production, and the very spirit of indigenisation and empowerment.
“This is betrayal,” said one Norton farmer bitterly.
“We are supposed to be working together to grow the economy, but instead Delta is pushing us backwards. If the President himself knew this, he would not tolerate it.”
Efforts to reach Mr Phiri for comment were unsuccessful, even as calls mount for a full probe into what farmers are describing as “daylight sabotage of black empowerment.”
For now, the trucks keep rolling out of Willowvale—all headed to one white farmer’s gates—while hundreds of black farmers wait in vain, their cattle left to starve. Delta Corporation In The Community Kudzai Murambinda
Credit: Harare Scandals
