Malgas
human settlement in South Africa
Malgas (or Malagas) is a settlement on the right (southwest) bank of the Breede River in the Overberg region of the Western Cape. It is situated 25 kilometres north-west of the Breede River mouth at Witsand, and 30 kilometres south-east of Swellendam.
"Malgas" is the Afrikaans for gannet. The word "malgas" is probably an adaptation of the Portuguese: mangas de velludo, lit. 'velvet sleeves', referring to the Cape gannet (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 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The man-hauled ferry has been replaced by a motor driven ferry. The new ferry consists of a series of plastic floats contained within a yellow steel framework structure. Propulsion is provided by a single diesel engine which provides power for 2 hydraulic thrusters.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 8, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q13035391. Authority coordinates are -34.300, 20.583. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Malgas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.