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The government officially launched the National Pledge on Tuesday. Sylvia Utete-Masango, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, led the recital of the pledge at Harare High School with pupils and their parents and teachers doing the same elsewhere across the country. This came amid considerable debate as some Christians, the opposition, civil society groups and teachers rejecting it. They, particularly Christians, assert that it is a secular oath that offends their religious beliefs. There are actually two or so cases at the Constitutional Court challenging the legality of the government’s directive for schools to recite the pledge.

On the other hand, the government is insisting that the wording of the pledge is derived from the preamble of the national constitution that was overwhelmingly endorsed by the majority in the March 2013 referendum. The ministry also says that there is no fundamental difference between the pledge, contained in the new curriculum framework adopted by Cabinet in September last year, and the national anthem. Apart from instilling a sense of patriotism and national pride such as one derives from their national flag or singing the national anthem, the pledge also encourages Zimbabweans from a tender age to conduct themselves honestly and putting God first.

The National Pledge for junior and secondary schools goes, “Almighty God, in whose hands our future lies, I salute the national flag. Respecting the brave fathers and mothers who lost lives in the Chimurenga/Umvukela. We are proud inheritors of the richness of our natural resources. We are proud creators and participants in our vibrant traditions and cultures. So I commit to honesty and the dignity of hard work.”

That for infants is; “Almighty God, in whose hands our future lies, I salute the national flag, I commit to honesty and dignity of hard work.”

With the utmost respect for those of a contrary opinion, we argue that every patriotic citizen will have no problem reciting it or singing their national anthem or flying their national flag on their car or on the roof of their house. We know that there are many patriots who gladly took their children to school on Tuesday to perform the National Pledge. We also know that there are others who strongly feel that some elements of it are against their religious beliefs.

Nonetheless it is our considered view that there is nothing essentially amiss about the wording and significance or motive of the pledge. It encourages positive values that any citizen should want to associate with — the honour of hard work, honesty, freedom, justice, equality, the liberation struggle and above all, the supremacy of God. Nothing more.

“We have our national symbols. For example, we have the Flag and anyone who is Zimbabwean cannot say I don’t subscribe to the Flag because this is a national symbol. We also have the Constitution. Because the Constitution is the highest law of the land, who can say I don’t subscribe to the Constitution? The wording of the Pledge is actually derived from the preamble. We are trying to strengthen the issues to do with our value system, heritage and who we are as a people,” said Utete-Masango.

It clearly espouses the same values that the national anthem seeks to develop and maintain.

“O God, we beseech Thee to bless our native land; The land of our fathers bestowed upon us all; From Zambezi to Limpopo; May leaders be exemplary; And may the Almighty protect and bless our land,” the national anthem goes in part.

We can’t see any new symbols, values or messages that are extolled in the National Pledge, that are not in the national anthem already, a song that has been sung, including by those rejecting the vow now, since 1994.

We are intensely sensitive to matters of faith and will unreservedly expect authorities to take on board all the sincere concerns that are being raised by Christians.

However, we view much of the opposition claims against the pledge as consistent with their well known oppositional stance against anything that seeks to instill patriotism in the people of Zimbabwe. To them any government proposal to that effect is undemocratic, authoritarian and so forth yet many countries that they look up to as archetypes of democracy, among them America and Britain, uphold such national values themselves. Yes, the opposition are Zimbabwean, but some of their arguments are simply mischievous, only raised for the sake of just opposing everything about the government and Zanu-PF.

One big challenge though that we see as a possible cause of the opposition we are witnessing is that there were no exhaustive and specific consultations by the government on this fundamental national rallying point.

It indeed is part of the official new curriculum but we think this particular item should have been subjected to a rigorous debate as happened to the national flag soon after independence and the national anthem in 1994. In coming up with the national song for example, the government rolled out a national contest before settling for Professor Solomon Mutswairo’s three-verse masterpiece. Its lyrics were also written in all key national languages. The process helped in the final national acceptability of the product.

That didn’t happen when the government came up with the National Pledge and this, in our view, was a critical oversight that has partly precipitated the ongoing discord.

Be that as it may, we hope that those opposing the pledge will, over time, understand its necessity.