74 | Zimbabwe Rule of Law Journal This has two implications. The first implication is what Malan meant when he said “[e]quitability may mean precisely that English, being one language that is understood by all or at least most citizens and inhabitants, be used as the anchor language.”51 The second implication is that the section acknowledges that not all the officially recognised languages can be used equally and practical steps should therefore be taken to avoid a scenario where one language dominates and others are diminished. Equitable treatment therefore affords the state and government institutions and agencies a broad discretion on the content of the considerations to be made when deciding how to treat official languages. The reality, though, is that English has taken a prominent role in the business of government with some official languages not used at all. This makes the official language status afforded to the other 15 languages merely symbolic. a. Language use in government activities and public service Currie argues that government activities are divided into legislation and administration. Currie52 contends further that legislation should be published in the principal languages of the state and provincial legislation should be published in the official languages of the province. In administration however, Currie contends that there is greater flexibility where government should consider factors like demography, language preference of the population in the province, usage, etc. Varennes interestingly suggests the use of a ‘sliding-scale’ approach53 to assess which official language should be used in particular government activity. This approach urges local authorities where language speakers are concentrated to increase level services in non-official minority languages as the number of language speakers increase beginning from the lower end of the sliding-scale and moving 51 K Malan K Malan ‘The discretionary nature of the official language clause of the Constitution’ (2011) 26 SA Public Law 381392. 52 I Currie & J de Waal The Bill of Rights Handbook (2005). 53 F de Varennes, Language, minorities and human rights (1996) 177-178.