South Africa heads for a coalition government. Why that’s a win for its democracy.

The group gathered around the small TV in an abandoned Cape Town hospital on Sunday evening crackled with nervous energy. They had squeezed into one of the old patient wards, now the bedroom of a woman named Zubeida Brown, to watch the official announcement of the results of South Africa’s May 29 election.

Already, the outcome was clear: The country’s ruling party, the African National Congress, had lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in history. But as dramatic music swelled from the TV and an election official announced the final vote tally, one woman