68 | Zimbabwe Rule of Law Journal the content of official language status granted to the 16 languages in s 6 of the Constitution and how language rights provided for in s 6 can be practically implemented across Zimbabwe. There are a number of practical ways that Zimbabwe can approach the challenge of implementing s 6. The first approach may entail Zimbabwe adopting the Ethiopian model. The Ethiopian model has one language (Amharic) as the official language of the whole country through the medium of which federal services are provided and regional governments are given the discretion to confer official language status to the one or more languages spoken in that region.41 Using the Ethiopian model, Zimbabwe could use English as its official language of record (as is currently obtaining) and have other languages used concurrently with English at a provincial level taking into account the number of the speakers of that language in each particular province and other practicality considerations. For example, Shona can be the official language for Harare, Manicaland province and all the Mashonaland provinces. Ndebele can be an official language for Bulawayo and all the Matabeleland provinces. This approach will be reasonable and practical given the demographic and political structure established by the Constitution. Section 264 allows for devolution of powers and responsibilities to provincial councils. Given that most linguistic minorities are concentrated in specific areas across Zimbabwe, it would be easy for provincial councils to use an official language that is mainly spoken in that province or town. The challenge with this approach though is that out of the 16 official languages, only English, Shona and Ndebele will be afforded official language status and would be used for government business in Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces. Such an approach would be in violation of s 6(1) in that it would reduce the other 13 official minority languages to symbolic official languages. Speakers of the other 13 languages could claim that they are being discriminated against on the basis of language. 41 Section 5 of the Ethiopian constitution. See also Fessha ‘A tale of two federations: Comparing language rights regime in South Africa and Ethiopia’ (2009) African Journal of Human Rights 501.