By Davet Muzwidzwa

ZIMBABWE, the land of diamond and gold.
The wealth and heritage bequeathed to us by our forefathers.
Your rivers flow with honey and your forests are pregnant with life giving heritage.
Your angels wash in the might Zambezi and Limpopo.
Otherwise understood as the water god Nyaminyami.
Your valleys and passes house your great children.
The Children of Thau Thau Haramas, Tovera, Mambiri, Murenga Sororenzou, Chaminuka, Nehanda, and Mushavatu, Mguni, Mzilikazi Salubimbi and many whose blood and flesh nourished the flora of my beautiful motherland.
I stand before you today and give my citizen pledge to you my Zimbabwe.
The spirits of our forefathers whose ears are set in the ground listening to the lies your children peddle about their country abroad, the eyes of our ancestors, those which see behind closed doors and walls, bear witness on how your children plot and scheme to destroy the legacy they have built over hundreds of thousands of years.
This day I make my citizen pledge to you Zimbabwe and promise to uphold it for posterity.
Zimbabwe, I am your son.
Blessed I am, to be born and reared in your hands.
Now that I am grown up and know how important you are, I pledge to respect honour and cherish your benevolence you have shown with abundant minerals, flora and fauna favoured to us by your kindness.
I pledge to be loyal to your covenants orally handed down from generation to generation.
I shall honour the sacredness of Zimbabwean blood which I vow to respect as dictated by tradition.
As a citizen, I shall work very hard playing my part in the rebuilding of this country from the economic debris created by years of slavery and colonisation.
I promise to hand over to my children, a better Zimbabwe than the one I was born in.
Where our children can enjoy their childhood.
Where our children can follow their dreams without hindrances.
Where our children weep no more because their road to success was cleared by the blood and sweat of their ancestors.
I shall not contribute in the recolonisation of my land, the cancer that will haunt our children forever.
Not in my name shall injustice prevail between the mighty Zambezi and mighty Limpopo.
Not in my name shall birds stop singing their morning praise in a peaceful nation, where visitors from afar seek economic refuge.
Not in my name shall peace evade the land of plenty.
Not in my name shall greedy transnationals be allowed to destabilise my beautiful nation.
Not in my name shall retrogression set foot in my land.
I shall respect elders as they represent the maturity of our nation.
I shall give thanks to Mwari for allowing our nation to forge ahead no matter how insurmountable the hurdles were in our epoch.
I shall give thanks to Mwari for sending us mighty messengers Chaminuka, Nehanda, Kaguvi and Mukwati for providing guidance and game changing prophecies during our trying times.
I shall respect the laws collectively agreed upon by your children Zimbabwe.
I shall uphold the virtues that made Zimbabweans the first miners of gold on earth.
I shall obey, respect, defend and uphold the constitution as a guide for my obligations to you my beloved country.
In return I beg you to favour me with personal abundance.
I shall not overcharge my customers with a greedy desire to get rich overnight. No one shall lament in my name for profiteering causing the less privileged to bleed due to my malicious intent.
I shall not seek to be paid for doing my work perpetuating the demon of corruption.
I shall be contented with my salary. Where it is not adequate, I shall supplement my pay using extra-income generating activities.
Therefore, I shall not seek clients of my employment to pay me personally for doing my work other than paying to the company what they are supposed to pay.
If I have the opportunity to become a civil servant, or a public officer, I shall do my job without demanding kickbacks.
I shall not seek to be paid for not doing my work.
If the clients of my work are supposed to pay for a service delivered, I shall not seek to be paid if that service is not provided.
For an example, charging people for water that is not provided shall not be tolerated in my tour of duty.
I shall not allow imports of goods that can be manufactured in the country if it is part of my duty to do so.
I pledge to support government when they reintroduce the Zimbabwe monetary currency to assert our sovereignty.
I pledge to contribute towards the growth of the economy and refrain from practices that hinder this aspiration.
I pledge to keep Zimbabwe clean in the air, water and land so that it can remain habitable to future generations.
I make this citizen pledge today in my very sombre state.
I know fully-well the implications of my pledge.
Should an anti-Zimbabweanness demon visit me, seek to overpower me and divert me from my citizen pledge, I seek protection from the spirit of Zimbabwe, to not only protect me but also to exorcise and cleanse our beautiful nation from such evil spirits.
This forms a complete citizen pledge I make to you Zimbabwe, the land of my ancestors and the future generation.
We the current generation only look after you Zimbabwe in trust for future generations.
As I seal my citizen pledge, I call upon all true Zimbabwean citizens to search in their hearts, what it is they pledge to their beloved country.
Are we not going to make a pledge to end the corruption scourge that is like a cancer eating our social fabric?
Are we not going to pledge against graft, money laundering, criminality, profiteering and other vices that are draining and depriving Zimbabwe of her resources and damaging her positive image and progress?
We have only one Zimbabwe that we must love, protect, defend and enjoy.
If all of us make a citizen pledge, Zimbabwe will be the most developing country on earth.
We are our own liberators.
It starts with a citizen pledge.