Bill 3 hearings deliver a verdict: The nation has already decided

THE hearings on Bill 3 didn’t merely hint at the eventual outcome; they announced it with authority. Loudly. Decisively. From the tone of the submissions to the weight of the numbers, the direction was never in doubt. The country has spoken, and the scoreboard is brutal reading for the bill’s opponents.

Across the provinces, the pattern repeated itself with striking consistency: overwhelming public support, pockets of scattered resistance, and not a single compelling argument strong enough to slow the bill’s momentum. In Bulawayo, long styled as a fortress of opposition politics, the figures told a more persuasive story than any slogan or placard. At City Hall, 32 out of 39 contributors voiced their support for the bill. At Nketa, the margin was even clearer, 29 out of 32. That is not a balanced debate or a hung jury. That is a rout.

Those opposed arrived armed with volume rather than substance. There was grandstanding designed more to impress donors than to persuade citizens, the recycling of tired talking points, and plenty of rhetoric unsupported by evidence. What was noticeably absent were grounded alternatives or practical solutions. In contrast, ordinary citizens, people who will live with the consequences of policy long after the cameras move on, spoke with clarity, conviction, and a keen sense of national interest.

Now the bill marches to Parliament, and there the arithmetic is even more unforgiving. With Zanu PF holding a two-thirds majority, and with a number of opposition MPs already signalling their support, the next stage is no longer a contest of ideas. It is, in effect, a confirmation ceremony. The second half will mirror the first, one way traffic, with the destination already mapped out.

As the late Evans Mambara would roar after a decisive strike: “It’s game over.” For the hired guns, the academics-for-rent, and the professional naysayers who thrive on perpetual dissent, the whistle has already blown. They were outplayed by a better team, the people themselves.

Those who engaged honestly in the process, who did not oppose for the sake of opposing, and who spoke with the future of the nation in mind rather than the pockets of foreign sponsors, will be remembered kindly by history. Just as history remembers those who fought and sacrificed for the independence that makes such public debate possible in the first place.

Bill 3 is not just passing. It is powering through. And the message from the nation is unmistakable: Zimbabwe is moving forward, with or without the noise.
O GUTU