There will be fights. There will be arguments. There will be insults There will be walkouts. There might even be trial separations — or divorce. That’s the nature of coalitions in SA, as we have learnt from bitter experience since 2016.

If the events of the past week of horse-trading over the formation of a new cabinet, based on the signing of a government of national unity agreement, are to be useful at all, then they must leave us with some new lessons about the unique animal that now leads the country and two provinces...