ABSA: Gross negligence, no accountability

My wife and I decided it was time to buy our own home. We looked around a while, got messed around a while, and eventually found "the one". The agents informed us this was a distressed property being listed via ABSA's HelpUSell. We were the first to view, and the first to put in an offer (the full asking price). This was early December 2020. Everything went downhill from here.

The seller refused to accept the offer at first, insisting on a higher price. We agreed and signed a new Offer to Purchase on 9 December 2020. The seller accepted and signed on 10 December 2020.

Because this was a HelpUSell property, ABSA needed to accept the offer as well. After some back and forth, they eventually did so on 17 December 2020.

A few days later, the seller approached ABSA to put the sale on hold while he and wife work out their divorce. This was not a legal request, and there are no clauses in the OTP to allow for this. Without any consultation or notice, ABSA agreed. They even instructed the transferring attorneys to pend the sale.

It is now March, and after much comings and goings, we've managed to get the sale back on track, but the seller still refuses the transferring documents. I have email confirmation, from ABSA, that they were at fault by agreeing to pend the sale from the get go.

Their actions have given the seller the idea that he is within his rights to continue pending the sale while we are running out of time - we gave notice once once we had confirmation and the property we live in has subsequently been sold.

ABSA should be held accountable for their mistake. We've submitted numerous requests to their complaints dept with no response. It's unacceptable that they delayed the process and put us in a precarious and highly stressful situation without even bothering to respond to the complaints.