South African slang for a police officer, used in township and urban Cape Coloured communities. It's the kind of word you'd hear in a warning — someone's clocked a cop and is signaling to the group. The term sits in the same register as the American 'five-o' or British 'feds': street-level slang that keeps information moving without spelling it out for anyone official who might be listening.
Everyone scattered when word came through that the gatta was doing rounds in the area.
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(South Africa, slang) A police officer.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.