maphepha, noun

/maˈpe(ː)pa/
Forms:
Also mephepha.
Plurals:
unchanged, or maphephas.
Origin:
IsiXhosaShow more IsiXhosa amaphepha, plural form of iphepha paper.
In urban (especially township) English:
1. slang
a. rand sense 3 a.
1970 O. Musi in Post 11 Oct. 2These people must fork out a thousand maphephas for costs and the cops want their pound of flesh.
1981 Voice 24 June 2Those guys are not playing games...The fine is 600 maphepha or six months and, wait for it, both.
1981 Voice 8 July 2They won’t listen to any application for a site unless..you have at least 6 000 maphepha in the bank.
1987 Drum Oct. 86Our pal says he can divulge this heavenly secret to you if you send him something like 20 mephepha.
b. noncount. Money; magageba.
1978 Voice 8 Nov. 2Bearing in mind that Queen Elizabeth II has a lot of maphepha I frankly don’t see why she shouldn’t..fork out income tax.
1979 Voice 31 Jan. 2A White guy..ordered the tellers to fork over the maphepha after telling them to kneel on the floor.
1983 O. Musi in City Press 28 Aug. 8Putco, of course has made a lot of maphepha from us, being virtually the only means of transport for many workers.
1987 Drum Jan. 51Divorce our speciality. Your maphepha refunded if wifey decides to hang on to you in spite of the fact that she’s lost the divorce action.
1987 O. Musi in Drum Nov. 93The smooth-talking shysters would spot a wealthy-looking and obviously greedy-for-more maphepha mlungu in the city and quickly make his acquaintance.
1990 O. Musi in City Press 17 June 9That whopping increase in the cops’ maphepha announced last week.
2. rare. An official document; in the plural, ‘papers’.
1985 D. Bikitsha in Sunday Times 15 Sept. 6Anybody ordinarily or shabbily dressed was a work-seeker who had to have all his papers or ‘maphephas’ (official documents) in order.
Money; magageba.
An official document; in the plural, ‘papers’.
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