Parliament - Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has called on the ANC to strengthen its branches if it wants to win the 2019 elections overwhelmingly.
"We must build the structures of the ANC not just because of the December conference," Gigaba said.
"We must strengthen the branches. The ANC can't afford to govern this country with anything less than 60%," he added.
He was addressing ANC supporters and members moments after President Jacob Zuma survived the motion of no confidence.
The ANC had in the 2016 local government elections lost the metros in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Port Elizabeth when it could not win with outright majority.
The losses have been dubbed as "The return of Jesus Christ" and that they were set to continue in 2019 amid the decline in ANC support, which has been on steady decline since President Jacob Zuma took over from his predecessor Thabo Mbeki.
In the latest motion of no confidence, Zuma narrowly survived and indications are that some ANC MPs voted with the opposition - a clear unpopularity of the incumbent president.
Out of ANC 384 MPs that voted, 177 supported the motion of no confidence while 198 rejected it. Only nine choose to abstain.
Gigaba said the strengthening of ANC branches should be about helping transform the country.
"We must work very hard," he said.
He thanked the ANC members for coming "to defend your organisation, the revolution and the struggle".
Moments before the results were announced, Deputy Minister for Police Bongani Mkongi said the ANC was the heritage of Africans in particular and blacks in general.
"We don't have heritage other than the ANC... We own the ANC."
"Our people have to defend their heritage."
He took a jibe at DA leader Mmusi Maimane, who sponsored the motion that nearly cost Zuma his presidency.
"We are not to be told by Mmusi...It is our Parliament. We were voted by the majority of people. He was not the in the revolution. We fought on the ground with the enemy when he was at school," he said.
"Maimane must go to his people and tell them that the people of South Africa will defend the heritage they have, the ANC," Mkongi said.