Melkbosstrand is a coastal village and beach on the West Coast of South Africa, 35km north of Cape Town.
Named after the species of Euphorbiaceae bushes which grow on the dunes and give off a milky latex like substance, it is commonly referred to simply as Melkbos. The town and its 7km stretch of white sand beach is situated on the Atlantic coast with the Blouberg mountain to the east. The beach is popular with surfers. It is notable for being one of the landing points for the South Africa-Far East and South Atlantic/West Africa submarine cable systems.
Melkbosstrand falls under the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, and its nearest neighbouring towns are Bloubergstrand and Atlantis.
Melkbosstrand owes much of its present day infrastructure to two significant South African apartheid government developments in the late seventies. The first, Koeberg nuclear power station, constructed with the help of the British and French some 6 km north of Melkbosstrand, necessitated the creation of high quality housing for the foreign contractors. The second, the government subsidized creation of Atlantis Diesel Engines (ADE), a joint venture between the British Perkins-Elmer and German Daimler AG, to bypass international sanctions. Although ADE was in the industrial park of Atlantis, some 50 km north of Cape Town, subsidized housing was established in Melkbosstrand to help attract and retain the many German, British, and even South African, engineers, managers, and technicians. These houses, both for Koeberg and ADE, have long since been sold off to the public.
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