Delay of flight to cancelation of flight.

We had a booking to leave 13h35 to Johannesburg to connect with SAA to Perth at 21h00. At 13h00 the notice came up that the flight is delayed. The staff couldn't say why. We were told that between 14h00 and 14h45 we must enquire fo further details. At 15h00 notice came up that flight was indefinetly delayed. Staff very reluctant to help. A long que at enquiries and all the passengers were helped individually. A lot of UK passengers and we all with connection flights were told to try other airlines. We phoned customer services in Cape Town. Reply was :"sorry cannot help". BA 's second flight to OR at 15h30 were on time. BA unable to swop passengers. SAA could put us on standby, but BA must request it. BAA refuses. At 16h00 was soonest for us to know if SAA have two seats available for flight leaving at 16h30 at a cost of oneway off R3400 each. Since 15h05 untill 16h20 it was impossible for BA's incompetant staff to retrieve our baggage that was checked in at 13h00. At 16h00 BA's notice came that our flight is delayed to 18h30 but no quarantees of no further delayes or even flight been banned like previous night. However we already took the SAA flight. What a stressfull time and nightmare experience.