Visit to Lakeside Engineering
On 23 June 2026, a small delegation of SASTA members visited Lakeside Engineering in Westmead, Durban, where they were hosted by Jhaques Thyssen from the External Sales division. Lakeside was founded in 1983 and is a regular exhibitor at SASTA Congress trade exhibitions. They manufacture, supply and repair a wide range of pumps for the agricultural and process industries, including positive displacement rotary vane pumps, vertical sump pumps, peristaltic hose pumps, slurry pumps and vacuum pumps, as well as basket strainers and other process equipment.
The workshop is well-equipped with several milling and turning machines, most of them being Computer Numerical Control (CNC) operated. All alloys used are South African sourced and specially selected to ensure ideal suitability for the duty required. Although Lakeside services many process industries, it has strong connections with the sugar industry, working closely with factories and estates to provide customised pumping equipment and innovating at times to address specific needs.
As Lakeside has a locally based workshop and sources many materials locally, it is able to respond quickly to breakdowns, which is welcomed by many factory engineers when problems occur. They also stock a wide range of commonly needed spares for rapid turnaround. It was good to see how home-grown enterprise is contributing to our economy and we believe that Lakeside Equipment makes a bigger contribution to the support of our sugar industry than many people realise.
Many thanks to Jhaques and his team for an interesting and enlightening visit.
