‘Maak my siek’: Comedian Keenan Cerff blasts Cape Town rent prices in viral rant

Cape Town’s rental prices have officially reached that “who approved this?” level, and comedian Keenan Cerff is turning the frustration into full-on comedy therapy.

“The rent prices in Cape Town maak my moeg. Dit maak my siek (translated: make me tired, it makes me sick)!” he said, basically speaking on behalf of anyone who has ever opened their banking app and immediately regretted it.

Cerff then posed the real existential crisis of modern living: stay in Cape Town and pay rent that feels like a monthly personality test, or move back home and accept that your social life now comes with curfew and unexpected “sound effects” in the neighbourhood.

“What are my options now? Do I stay here and pay all this expensive rent? Or go back home, and I can’t be out late at night because shooting might happen,” he joked.

He explained that he currently lives in a studio apartment, which in Cape Town is just a polite word for “expensive minimalism with a stove.”

“When I started living here, rent was about R7 500. With water and electricity, it pushed the bill up to R8 100,” he said.

Even if that sounds “fine” on paper, the reality is that the average South African income is not exactly out here doing Olympic gymnastics to cover rent, transport, food and life in general. It’s more like it’s trying its best while everything keeps getting more expensive.

Cerff added that his rent has now climbed to around R8 800, joking that after a year, he has spent over R100 000 on a studio apartment.

“I didn’t even know I had R100 000. If I did, I would sleep in a car rather,” he said, which is both funny and mildly concerning if you sit with it too long.

He even compared it to his past living situation, saying staying with his “drug addict uncle” was cheaper, where he only paid R10 a week. “I might as well go back there,” he added, a line that lands somewhere between chaos and “Cape Town made me say this.”

I think we can all agree with Cerff, Cape Town rent is doing the absolute most, and nobody asked for it.