African National Congress (ANC) councillors are conniving with rival unions to destroy the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), the union said on Wednesday.

“There are ANC councillors who are recruiting members from Samwu to rival unions in an attempt to destroy us,” said deputy general secretary Simon Mathe.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) 12th elective congress in Midrand.

He said some ANC councillors in municipalities were openly recruiting members for the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu).

Samwu reported that membership had dropped by 2 564 members over a three-year period. The union reported that there were 150 923 members at the 12th national congress down from the 153 487 member attendance reported at the 2012 congress.

The municipal union suffered a blow when a splinter group launched a new union, the Democratic Municipal and Allied Workers of SA (Demawusa). The splinter group held its founding congress in Johannesburg in September.

On Tuesday, Mathe told the congress during the political debate that political confidentiality was being compromised when drivers allocated to ANC mayors were from opposition parties.

“You cannot have a member of the DA [Democratic Alliance] being the driver of an ANC mayor…politically confidentiality is compromised,” he said.