Call barring but payments up to date

Yesterday afternoon when I tried phoning I got a message that I can't make outgoing calls while call barring is on. I checked my settings and the phone was not on call barring. I tried phoning again - same message. I switched off and on and tried again - same message. I removed the battery and tried again - same message. I also couldn't use whatssapp, and my time was out by about 8 hours, but my signal was strong. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Later in the afternoon I went to the local Cell C branch, who phoned Cell C. After being kept waiting for about 15 minutes, I was told that Cell C had barred my outgoing calls but they didn't know why