Malgas (or Malagas) is a settlement on the right (southwest) bank of the

Breede River The Breede River ( af, Breederivier), also known as Breë River, is a river in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Travelling inland north from the city of Cape Town, the river runs in a west to east direction. The surrounding western mou ...

in the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

region of the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

. It is situated 25 kilometres north-west of the Breede River mouth at

Witsand Witsand is a small coastal town situated at the mouth of the Breede River in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is a good fishing area and is widely considered to be the whale nursery of the South African coastline. Witsand has seen some of the lar ...

, and 30 kilometres south-east of

Swellendam Swellendam is the fifth oldest town in South Africa (after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, and Paarl), a town with 17,537 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them b ...

. "Malgas" is the Afrikaans for gannet. The word "malgas" is probably an adaptation of the , referring to the

Cape gannet The Cape gannet (''Morus capensis'') is a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. They are easily identified by their large size, black and white plumage and distinctive yellow crown and hindneck. The pale blue bill is pointed with fine ...

(''Morus capensis'') with its black-tipped wings. According to the 2011 census, Malgas has a population of 44 people in 20 households.

Malgas Pont

It is well known for the "pont", a man-hauled pontoon

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

across the Breede River, which is the last of its type in South Africa. The man-hauled ferry has been replaced by a motor driven ferry, a yellow steel pontoon with a massive diesel engine.

References

External links

* Populated places in the Swellendam Local Municipality {{WesternCape-geo-stub