Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(S.Afr.) a cinema tea-room or bio-café, a form of cinema at which one can eat snacks while watching a film.

1970		informant in DSAE (1996).
1981		Sun. Times (Johannesburg) 10 May (Mag. Sect.) 7: Nobody who has never sat in a darkened Soppies (or cinema tea-room, as the larney-er ones liked to be called) will ever understand their appeal. I don’t know about Cape Town’s Soppies, but the ones in Durbs have all been replaced with discount stores now, and the ones in Joeys will soon be naught but a happy memory [DSAE].