Won't release money from account

My mother has been trying for over a year now to get the money out of her husband's Absa account after she did declare that he passed away that time. She had to go in two times to declare it and still it was not done by same person at Absa branch and only recently they properly declared husband as deceased. Absa has already taken over R3000 in bank costs over the year and the Absa branch refuses that my mother talks to any Manager to assist her. Now Absa wants my mother to pay around R500 to be able to withdraw the money that is still left after Absa been taking bank costs for all those months. How can we get some assistance with getting all the funds including the R3000 that Absa employee messed up declaring person as deceased and had to stop the bank costs from occurring back then?