Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(S.Afr.) a blockhead, a fool; thus a general term of abuse for a black person.

1949		Partridge DU 348/1: Hout-kop, An aborigine or coloured native [...] late C.19–20.
1973		Daily Dispatch (S.Afr.) 6 Aug. 8: The days of ‘bloody kaffir’ and ‘houtkop’ are definitely past ... Bantu are people. Respect their human values [DSAE].
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 146: Jacko would spit water and start calling Joerie a coloured, a klonkie, a houtkop, a moffie, an Abo, a kaffir and asking which hottentot slept with his old lady.
1990		P. Hotz Muzukuru 8: They’re just a bunch of goddam houties. [Ibid.] 18: He insisted he was a coloured. ‘Look at my hair,’ he kept telling us, ‘it’s straight. When did you ever see a houtie with hair straight like that? And my nose, it’s pointy. Houties have flat noses.’.
1991		M. Kantey All Tickets 73: Van Eiselen’s systematic hewing of the houtkoppe [DSAE].