Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (S.Afr.) a township dandy whose life is dedicated to the purchase of expensive, fashionable clothes.

1982		Staffrider 5:2 9: There were [...] Mapansula, Ma-Amerikane and what have you [...] These people are discerned from one another by their way of dressing [DSAE].
1984		Frontline July 29: Pantsulas and Mshozas take great pride in their expensive clothes. Lizard-skin shoes and purses, cashmere pullovers and cardigans, leather coats, jackets and berets are top with them. [Ibid.] 30: The cheapest pair of shoes you will come across worn by a Pantsulas will cost about R150 [DSAE].
1995		Gevisser & Cameron Defiant Desire 172: I knew that the only thing the pantsula was interested in was the hole.
2002		G. Evans Dancing Shoes is Dead 157: He became known as lpanstula — a term of township endearment derived from the loose trousers worn by streetwise young men from the townships.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

2010		IOL News Western Cape) 25 May 🌐 So how many hundreds of times have they made those gumboots, the ankle shakers, the pantsula takkies and the tapshoes do the talking?
2011		IOL News (Western Cape) 24 June 🌐 South African youth have a culture that, like hip hop, is meticulously blended with music, swagger, lively jargon, dance and a certain way of dressing. This comes from pantsula culture.