Leomat Construction

About Leomat

Leomat is a civil construction and plant hire company based in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal. It has been in business since 1979 and is a family-owned firm. The head office is at Alton in Richards Bay, and the company works for both public and private clients across Southern Africa.

Plant hire means renting out heavy machines, such as earthmoving equipment, together with operators. It is a useful service on large civil projects, because contractors do not always own every machine. In addition, Leomat serves industrial clients that need materials moved in bulk. Careers in this kind of company include site management, cost control, surveying and safety.

Its services are broad. They include roadworks and transport infrastructure, water and sanitation pipelines, bulk earthworks, concrete and structural steel work, mining infrastructure, dams and landfills. Leomat also handles coal, timber and wood products. According to its website, it holds a CIDB grade 9CE rating, which is the top grade for civil engineering work, and it employs registered construction professionals.

How Leomat supports students

Leomat has offered bursaries to students who want to work in construction. Published adverts named civil engineering, quantity surveying, building science and construction management. Qualifications included BSc, BEng, BTech and National Diploma programmes, so both universities and universities of technology were covered.

The award was described as covering tuition fees, examination fees, prescribed books and residence. In return, students did vacation work at the Richards Bay head office or on a project site. After graduating, they were expected to join the company. For example, a quantity surveying student could spend a holiday on a live site and see how costs are tracked.

What to know before applying

Earlier adverts asked for South African citizenship and a completed matric. Strong results in maths are an advantage for most of these fields, although the exact marks were not confirmed. The company's website does not currently describe a bursary page, so details of intake dates, amounts and selection steps could not be verified.

Therefore, treat older adverts as a guide only. Contact the company using the details on its official website, or watch its vacancy section, before you prepare an application. In the meantime, you can strengthen your chances. Keep your marks up, collect certified copies of your documents and look for vacation work in the construction industry. Because the firm is based in KwaZulu-Natal, students who live in the province and are willing to join the company after graduating may be a natural fit.

If you are still at school, maths and science marks help most with civil engineering. Entry rules for building science and construction management differ between institutions, so check the requirements of each course. Moreover, a short holiday job on any building site shows commitment and gives you something concrete to write about in your motivation.