Eskom's "obscene" price hikes meant foreign visitors would be the only people able to afford tickets to 2010 soccer World Cup events, the United Transport and Allied Trade Union said on Thursday.

Soaring electricity tariffs would result in food shortages and massive job losses, the union's general secretary Chris de Vos said in a statement.

"The government might as well start printing 'foreigners only' signs for the World Cup stadiums now," he said.

"As the nation's visitors smile and cheer inside the 2010 football stadiums, outside them hundreds of thousands of South Africans will be involved in strikes, protests or a grim search for jobs and food."