Aprés Jacob Zuma, la déluge . That, in a sense, is what will confront the national general council of the African National Congress (ANC) when it gathers at the University of Pretoria today for four days of policy debates, soul searching and some tough talking about the future of the party.

For, after Zuma, the ANC is not the party it used to be. The Zuma saga has changed the party in ways it and the rest of the country have yet to understand.

When President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma as his deputy on June 14, he said: “We have had no precedent to guide us .... We have therefore had to make our own original determination on this matter ...”

Mbeki was talking about government’s response to Judge Hilary Squires’s findings in the Schabir Shaik trial, but he might as well have been talking about the ANC in the aftermath of Zuma’s sacking.

He broke with ANC practice and put the party on a different course, making it subservient to the rule of law and SA’s constitution. Where some expected Mbeki to put loyalty above the interests of the country, he chose differently. This change in party practice is likely to show at the council gathering.

The estimated 2700 delegates will look at ways of making the ANC a professional party capable of helping the state meet its delivery targets and party leaders to connect with the grassroots.

The debate about the ANC’s revamp will take on greater urgency in the light of the looming municipal elections, at which the party could be punished for corruption and poor service delivery. There will also be some tough talking about the economic choices that face SA.

The party’s proposals on labour market reform look set to be shelved following a backlash from the ANC’s labour and communist allies.

In discussion documents released before the council meeting, the ANC proposed introducing a two-tier labour system to make it easier for companies to fire younger workers. The party also touted the idea of exempting smaller businesses from central bargaining agreements.

However, in the face of a massive one-day strike by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) this week, followed by the release of new unemployment figures by Statistics SA, party leaders have lost their stomachs for a bruising policy battle.

Economic ministers also appear lukewarm to some of the more radical measures in the document. A member of the party’s national executive council said recently: “The idea of a dual labour market system will not fly at this (meeting).”

Senior ministers were quick this week to play down the discussion paper’s importance. In Pretoria Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said: “The document in question is a discussion document, not a policy document.”

But government has refused to budge on the key Cosatu demand for the rand to be devalued. “We are not inclined to take artificial measures to influence the currency,” he said on the day of the Cosatu strike.

Government’s view appears to be at odds with agreements struck between the alliance partners at a summit earlier this year.

But in a sign that the ANC is keen to get buy-in from its allies, the party has invited 60 Cosatu delegates to the meeting. By allowing such a large Cosatu delegation, the ANC could be counting on its labour allies not to renege when the recommendations of the council are turned into government policy.

While the council is not a policy-making forum, its discussions will point the way towards what will happen in 2007, when a possibly new-look ANC will probably elect a successor to Mbeki, draft a new macroeconomic policy, and rebuild walls washed away by the deluge that followed Zuma’s sacking.

With acknowledgements to Karima Brown, Jacob Dlamini, Vukani Mde, Hopewell Radebe and the Business Day.