South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa defended the durability of his unity government on Friday, after a row over a contentious education bill exposed tensions between his ANC and its main coalition partner.

The leader of South Africa's second biggest party says there will be conflict in the new coalition government, and it should not be viewed as "catastrophic."

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed a disputed education bill into law, but delayed implementation of two clauses that had threatened to fracture South Africa’s nearly three-month-old unity government.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has tried to head off a major row within his uneasy governing coalition by delaying the implementation of the most controversial part of a new education law.

By Nellie Peyton JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's office said he would sign into law a disputed education bill, prompting the first sign of real friction in his unity government when the second-biggest party said the move jeopardised the coalition deal.

South Africa’s 10-party unity government will work through its differences and endure, because its collapse would erode investor confidence and set back efforts to grow the economy, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.