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.

South Africa's second largest political party says an education bill that would give the government more control over white minority language schools is a threat to the country’s new government of national unity.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa holds up the signed Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, which aims to strengthen governance in the education sector, surrounded by Premier of Gauteng Andrek Panyaza Lesufi,

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.

Before May’s general election, the result of which forced Mr Ramaphosa’s African National Congress into a coalition, the two main partners in the current government were at loggerheads over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill.

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. A dispute over language policy had threatened the stability of the 10-party government created after the African National Congress (ANC) lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in May's election.