Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a homosexual; thus koffie-moffie, an airline steward (lit. ‘coffee-queen’).

1959		A. Delius Last Division 76: Masters never saw such a blerry mix-up. / It was like the annual Moffies’ dance.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 137: moffie (Cape Town gay sl, fr sl moff = hermaphrodite) homosexual.
1975		S. Roberts ‘For No Reason’ Outside Life’s Feast 60: Man it’s too much city life that turns them into moffies and queers.
1989		B. Simon ‘Score Me the Ages’ Born in the RSA (1997) 136: Hey nooit I’m not a moffie hey, I only touch chicks.
1997		(con. 1950s) J.M. Coetzee Boyhood (1998) 148: There are rumours that Theo is a moffie, a queer.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 62: I took up rugby for fear of being a moffie.
2008		IOL News (Western Cape) 4 Mar. 🌐 Troy’s transformation from a feared gangster, who has an ‘understanding’ with the Lebs and the Black okes to a ‘moffie’ wearing a sari and cooking Indian cuisine.
2011		IOL News (Western Cape) 9 June 🌐 The boy claimed he was forced to perform oral sex to adults. ‘It tasted bad. I wanted to throw up, but my grandfather (accused) said I must not be a moffie (gay)’.

2. (also moffoise) attrib. use of sense 1.

1982		P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at the Palace (1985) 66: Then you get your child psychiatrists – their moffie advice.
1989		B. Simon ‘Score Me the Ages’ Born in the RSA (1997) 137: Child molestors, kak man, the fucken problem is moffie molestors.
1995		I Mohammed Cheaper than Roses (1988 ) 55: Tant Sennah and her moffie husband.
2010		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 9 Jan. 🌐 I tend to use that word juge a bit, but regret that it and zhoozie are strictly moffoise slang.

3. (also moffee) a transvestite.

1954		Drum (Johannesburg) Jan. 12: ‘Madame’ (as Joey is known on the stage) leads a troupe of brilliant Coloured female impersonators who perform their popular ‘Moffee Concerts’ to packed houses [DSAE].
2010		IRIN On Line 8 Apr. 🌐 The so-called moffies, or transvestites.

4. a lesbian.

2011

IOL News (Western Cape) 19 Mar. 🌐 I am heterosexual! [...] Let’s say that i lied and that i told you that I’m a lesbian, a ‘faggot’, a ‘moffie’, "is’tabane’, and a ‘tom boy’.