The ANC has bussed in "vigilantes" in camouflage from other provinces to disrupt a weekend Cope rally, a Cope official said on Wednesday.

However the African National Congress has dismissed the claim as "unfounded and reckless".

Congress of the People Western Cape spokesperson Mandla Yeki said the ANC was trying to "destabilise" the rally planned for 18 April in Khayelitsha, to be addressed by Cope deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa.

"Cope's leadership has reliably learnt that the ANC has already bussed in vigilantes to scare people away from the rally," he said.

"These so-called vigilantes from other provinces, some of them Zulu-speaking, were seen clad in camouflage in some shebeens in Khayelitsha last night."

He said Cope's provincial leadership had asked to meet the acting head of the city police and the Western Cape police commissioner to discuss the threat.

But the ANC dismissed Yeki's claims as groundless.

"In the absence of any coherent policies, programmes, or campaign on the ground to win voters, Cope is resorting to unfounded and reckless allegations of this kind," said ANC Western Cape spokesperson Garth Strachan.

"If anyone has any evidence of criminal activity by anybody, including ANC members, it should be reported to the authorities and the law should be upheld."

Cope also said it would lay a complaint with police over some 500 posters damaged or removed in Khayelitsha.

The party's Boland leadership had already laid a complaint over a three-meter long billboard vandalised in Worcester at the weekend.