Cape Town · Septic Infrastructure
What's beneath your propertyshouldn't keep you up at night.
Drain operates a fleet of vacuum tankers across the Cape Winelands and Durbanville corridor — pumping, inspecting, and certifying the septic systems that the city sewer network never reached.
18 yrs
Operating in the Cape
2 400+
Systems serviced
24 hr
Emergency response
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The Crew
The people who know what's down there.
Every Drain technician is field-trained, licensed, and has spent years working the specific terrain of the Cape's rural and peri-urban properties. This is who shows up.
Riaan Botha
Senior Field Technician
Riaan has mapped more septic systems across the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek valleys than anyone else in the Western Cape. He can tell from the colour of the inlet baffle whether the tank was last pumped in summer or winter. On harvest weekends, when guest lodge managers need certainty before 200 visitors arrive, Riaan is usually the first call.
Certified pump-out, camera inspection, and biodigester servicing. WSSA member since 2011.
14 years with Drain
Thandi Nkosi
Compliance & Certification Officer
Property transfers stall when the compliance certificate isn't in order. Thandi knows every clause of the City of Cape Town's Wastewater By-law and the National Building Regulations that govern on-site sanitation. She writes the certificates that agents need and the reports that bodies corporate can actually file — clear, dated, and defensible.
Issues SANS 10400-P compliance certificates. Registered with the Department of Water and Sanitation.
9 years with Drain
Jerome Jansen
Emergency Response Driver
Overflowing tanks don't wait for business hours. Jerome runs the night and weekend shift, covering smallholdings from Durbanville to Philadelphia when a system backs up into a kitchen drain or a guest bathroom at 11 pm on a Saturday. He keeps a detailed log of every emergency callout — the kind of record that protects a property owner if the municipality ever asks questions.
Available 24 hours, 7 days. Tanker capacity: 16 000 litres. Average response time within 60 km: 47 minutes.
6 years with Drain
What We Do
Every service your system will ever need.
From the routine pump-out to the certificate that unlocks a transfer — one crew, one call.
Tank Pump-Out
Scheduled and emergency vacuum extraction of septic tank contents. We service tanks from 2 500 to 40 000 litres, including conservancy tanks and French drains.
From R1 850 · Typically 60–90 min on-site
Camera Inspection
CCTV drain and tank inspection to identify cracks, root intrusion, collapsed baffles, and inlet/outlet damage before they become failures.
Full video report included
Compliance Certificate
SANS 10400-P certification for property transfer. We inspect, document, and issue the certificate your conveyancer needs — with a turnaround of 5 working days.
Required for all property transfers in the City of Cape Town
Emergency Response
Overflow, blockage, or backup at any hour. Jerome and the night crew cover a 60 km radius from Cape Town with an average 47-minute response.
24 / 7 · 365 days
System Maintenance
Annual service contracts for wine estates, guest lodges, and sectional title schemes. Scheduled visits, written reports, and priority emergency slots.
Contracts from R4 200 / year
Compliance & Regulation
The certificate that makes the deal.
Property transfers in the Cape Winelands and Durbanville corridor increasingly require a current compliance certificate for on-site sanitation systems. Without it, conveyancers stall and transfer attorneys delay. Drain issues certificates that satisfy the City of Cape Town and Western Cape provincial requirements.
Drain Compliance Certificate
Accepted by conveyancers, the City of Cape Town, and the Western Cape Department of Local Government. Turnaround: 5 working days.
On-Site Sanitation
The national standard governing the design, installation, and maintenance of septic tanks, French drains, and conservancy tanks. Compliance is required for all property transfers.
Wastewater Management
The City of Cape Town's Wastewater and Drainage By-law requires on-site systems to be maintained in a condition that prevents overflow, odour, and groundwater contamination.
Water Use Registration
Certain on-site disposal systems require registration under the National Water Act. Drain's compliance team handles the documentation and submission.
On-site documentation · Stellenbosch, 2025
Free Resource
The Cape Town Septic Owner's Guide
32 pages. Covers how septic systems work in Cape Town's geology, what the compliance regulations actually require, when to pump versus when to repair, and a plain-language glossary of the terms your municipality will use when something goes wrong.
How Cape Town's water table affects system performance
The compliance certificate checklist — page by page
Emergency vs. scheduled service: how to tell the difference
Questions to ask your contractor before they open the hatch
Free PDF Guide
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