1South African A young urban criminal, especially one from a township area.
‘He approached several black policemen (who were unarmed until the 1980s) who, when they spotted the tsotsis, starting running.’
‘Some writers describe situations where paranoid fears of crime and violence are dissolved by friendly warmth and wry smiles of supposed tsotsis instead.’
‘He remembers walking in downtown Joburg when, turning around, he noticed he was being followed by some tsotsis.’
‘These aims were not realized: high unemployment persisted; urban gangs such as the tsotsis and the Russians, as well as delinquency, flourished.’
‘Even the tsotsis, the unkempt street ruffians of the 1930s, began to embrace the quest for style in the 1950s.’
1.1historical A young black gangster belonging to a group prominent in the 1940s and 1950s, affecting a special language and flashy dress.