Paving in KwaZulu-Natal

Street drains are built for a 1-in-10-year storm at best

In March 2025 eThekwini stated that its stormwater systems are designed for a 1-in-10-year storm at critical points and a 1-in-3-year storm in non-critical areas. Only large canals and river works are built for 1-in-50 or 1-in-100-year events. The City added that it has seen an increasing frequency of severe floods over the past decade, and that drainage on private property is the owner's responsibility.

In practice, a heavy storm can exceed what the street drain outside your gate is built to take. Your paving needs to cope when water can't get away quickly:

• Falls that send water away from the house and garage, not towards doorways that sit lower than the driveway.
• Channel drains across the bottom of steep driveways, with grates you can lift and clear.
• Strong edge restraints, so runoff doesn't scour the bedding sand from the sides.
• A plan for where overflow goes if the street drain backs up.

Steep plots on the Upper Highway

A Durban-area paving company notes that steeper plots in Hillcrest, Kloof and Bothas Hill need deeper excavation and stronger bases, so groundwork and labour add up faster than on flat sites. On a slope, runoff also gathers speed down the driveway, which makes the drainage details above more important, not less. Ask each installer to explain how they'll stop the bottom of the driveway becoming the collection point for everything above it.

Paving the verge needs an eThekwini wayleave

eThekwini's Excavations By-law 2022 lists the installation of kerbing, paving, bollards, walls and gardens on sidewalks by property owners or occupiers among the works in the public road reserve that need a wayleave. No work may start until the wayleave is approved, and the application goes through the municipality's wayleave and excavation office after a service enquiry with the other service agencies.

Penalties are steep: a fine of up to R300,000, up to three years' imprisonment, or both, with each day of non-compliance counted as a separate offence. If you want the driveway paved right out to the road, make the wayleave part of the job.