JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Thousands of striking South African municipal workers took to the streets on Monday, demanding higher wages and threatening chaos in cities two months before the start of the World Cup.

Africa's biggest economy has suffered a wave of strikes in the past year as well as protests in townships.

The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), which represents about 130,000 workers, said the strike would affect basic services such as street sweeping, rubbish collection and vehicle licensing.

The protest raised fears of a repeat of chaotic scenes last year when workers left streets littered with rubbish.

While the municipal workers' strike is not expected to have a major economic impact, it does come as South Africa is under increasing scrutiny as it prepares to host the soccer World Cup, which kicks off in June.

The union expects the strike will be over by then.

"We won't strike during the World Cup period simply because we are expecting to resolve the situation much sooner than that," said Tahir Sema, SAMWU spokesman.

"(But) the living conditions of our South Africans are much more important to us than the World Cup. We see it as quite an important thing to close the wage gap between the rich and the poor," he added.

The biggest labour federation in South Africa and ally of the ruling ANC COSATU, has threatened to strike during the tournament to protest at high power price increases.

The municipal workers strike will not affect essential services such as emergency and metro police services.