Changing month to month plans without consent to 24month contracts

This is a double whammy. In 2020 while being under debt review, they accepted my upgrades of two contracts to change to month to month data plans. Also with the guaranteed explanation from the sales guy that I can cancel at any moment seeing as its covid and anything can happen. THIS IS WHY I CHNAGED TO THE MONTH TO MONTH PLANS. Now i am unable to upgrade because of the debt review and i needed to cancel the month to month plans because of financial difficulties. Now i am told they are 24month contracts. I did not give consent to this. Phoning them is no help cause their staff dont want to do more than expected. Mailing them gets no replies. Now i have to suffer until end of September before i can cancel. Being a loyal customer for sooooo many years means nothing to this company. If i want to cancel now i have to pay R3547.50 which is double the amount of what i have left to pay if i just keep them going.