Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(S.Afr. township) liquor; thus phuza-face, a face bearing the marks of prolonged heavy drinking.

1902		(con. S. Afr.) Eve. Sentinel (Santa cruz, CA) 18 Aug. 1/4: The rigorous suppression in force has extinguished the shebeener and the illicit vendor of ‘puza’.
1908		D. Blackburn Leaven 196: Never drink puza, never tell lies.
1911		Blackburn & Caddell Secret Service in S. Afr. 41: They knew that their warning would be rewarded by permanent facilities for securing cheap ‘puza’. [Ibid.] 53: He could purchase half a bottle of puza for a shilling.
1928		L.P. Greene Adventure Omnibus 54: ‘You are thirsty, headman,’ ‘I have brought you white man’s puza.’ Umbalose nodded and closed his eyes as if to shut out the vision of happiness the bottles had conjured up [DSAE].
a.1931		S. Black Helena’s Hope in Gray Three Plays (1984) 141: Yoy yoy, he doesn’t know vat is visky. I can see you not a Scotch Native! Visky is brandewyn — poosa!
1977		J. Sikakane Window on Soweto 60: There was a beverage [...] which the prisoners used to call puza’mandla – drink power!
1986		Pace May 110: I pitied those sweety pies with rotund phuza faces and with figures like over-fed bed-bugs [DSAE].
1988		Frontline Nov. 27: I approach another man pushing a wheelbarrow. He has a phuza face and he generally looks sickly [ [].