This year marks a historic milestone for Knight Piésold, a consulting engineering firm, whose roots go back 100 years in South Africa. The company was founded in Johannesburg in 1921, and has grown from small beginnings into a global consulting firm operating in 15 countries worldwide. With a staff complement of 850 people, the firm is passionate about creating value for clients at every stage of a project.

With a history dating back to include clients such as South African Railways and Harbours, the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company, the Anglo-American Corporation, and the Electric Supply Commission; the firm now caters to clients across the world in the mining, power, water resources, infrastructure, and oil and gas industries.

The company’s successful 100-year footprint has a strong history of commitment to communities and clients, including in the region of the Limpopo province, where it has had a presence since the early 1960s, explains Le Roux Loubser, Regional Manager in Phalaborwa for Knight Piésold.

In the Phalaborwa area, the company was the lead design and construction engineers for the Olifants River Barrage water storage facility in the 1960s, and which, till today, supplies water to the mines, factories, communities, residential areas, and business centres in and around Phalaborwa. This experience continues to showcase itself, even today, outside of South Africa, where Knight Piésold recently designed and managed the construction of the largest dam in Namibia - the Neckartal Dam.

Further, the company’s presence in the mining sector of Phalaborwa can be traced back to the early 1980s. “Our company as a whole has expanded its mining services offering to civil, structural, surface water, ground water and environmental services. We are seeing developments across the infrastructure landscape, and we are also making a point of leveraging our experience in the Phalaborwa region,” says Loubser.

Knight Piésold’s experience in the region includes, but is not limited to, the design and management of waste and water storage facilities; water and slurry pumping infrastructure; steel and concrete structures integrity assessments and rehabilitation; water and waste treatment plant; roads; slope stability analysis and design; and municipal infrastructure.      

“The institutional knowledge coupled with our experience is unparalleled for any project that Knight Piésold enters into in this region. Our success in the region over the past 40 years is the result of the relationships and services that have been created with the support of our clients and communities.

“The staff in Phalaborwa, where the company has a dedicated office, are extremely proud to be part of an international group that has what it takes to last 100 years given that only about 0.5% of companies reach this milestone and continue to look forward to growing with an even stronger footprint in this region.

“We wish to thank our clients and suppliers for their ongoing support in reaching this milestone in engineering excellence,” Loubser concludes.