The African National Congress (ANC) will discipline at least three MPs who have publicly admitted that they voted in support of the motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma, it said on Tuesday,

The party’s National Working Committee decided at a meeting on Monday that that the MPs must face a disciplinary inquiry.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the party would not embark on a "witch hunt" to investigate which ANC MP’s voted in support of the motion, however those who have publicly said they supported the Democratic Alliance motion will be disciplined.

"Three of them have confirmed they voted with [the] opposition we will have to deal with that situation because if we don’t we will destroy [the] essence of being an organisation," Mantashe said.

Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, former tourism minister Derek Hanekom and senior ANC MPs Makhosi Khoza and Mondli Gungubele had publicly stated that they would vote with their conscience.

Mantashe said the ANC sees the outcome of last Tuesday’s historic motion as neither a "victory or defeat".

For the first time since winning power, an estimated 30 to 40 ANC members of parliament supported a motion brought forward by the opposition.

"We don’t call it a victory because there are ANC MP’s who voted with opposition - but we acknowledge it [the motion] was defeated,"  Mantashe said.

At the weekend Zuma called for members who voted for him to go. He said their actions amounted to "bringing the party into disrepute".

Zuma narrowly survived the motion with 177 members of parliament voting for him to go and 198 against the motion. Nine abstained.