Abstract This article reports on the progress (or lack thereof) regarding the use of Sesotho as an official medium of communication in selected government departments in the Free State Provincial Government (FSPG). In South Africa, provincial governments are required to implement language policies that promote multilingualism. The aim is to develop previously marginalised languages such as Sesotho, isiXhosa and isiZulu, among others, so that they have equal status to English and Afrikaans. A mixed-method design was used to guide the research process and purposive sampling to ensure that participants made a valuable contribution to this study. We are concerned that despite efforts being made to reduce the gap between official languages such as English and Afrikaans and the previously marginalised languages, there is no real progress in this regard. The results of this study reveal that Sesotho, as a previously marginalised language, is still underutilised in government departments. Evidence suggests that the results of this study be used as a guide for the formulation and implementation of language policies and procedures to address this problem.

中文翻译：

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塞索托语仍然是一种边缘化的语言

摘要本文报道了在自由州省政府（FSPG）选定的政府部门中，使用Sesotho作为官方沟通媒介的进展（或缺乏进展）。在南非，要求省级政府实施促进多语制的语言政策。目的是发展诸如Sesotho，isiXhosa和isiZulu等以前被边缘化的语言，以使其与英语和南非荷兰语具有同等地位。混合方法设计用于指导研究过程和目标抽样，以确保参与者对这项研究做出了宝贵的贡献。我们感到关切的是，尽管正在努力缩小英语和南非语等官方语言与以前被边缘化的语言之间的差距，但在这方面没有真正的进展。这项研究的结果表明，塞索托语作为一种以前被边缘化的语言，在政府部门中仍未得到充分利用。有证据表明，这项研究的结果可作为制定和实施解决该问题的语言政策和程序的指南。