The ANC would have to discuss the reality that its electoral support might decline to below 50% in the 2019 general elections at its national elective conference.
The concession was made in ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe's draft organisational report for the conference.
"The disturbing character of the decline is that in the successive elections we continued to decline systematically," he noted in the draft report.
An analysis by the party's top brass showed the ANC had the highest election results in 2009 and the worst it received was at last year's local government elections, when the party secured 54%.
"This is the lowest we can ever be; otherwise the threat of losing power is real," Mantashe said.