Charged double for Renewal of Passport

My son in law app**** for renewal of his passport at the Malmesbury Branch. He was told that he must go to Mitchell's Plain office to cancel his old passport which had already expired. He was then told to take out a Maxi Tourist 48 page passport at a cost R1200. He was under pressure as he needs his passport to travel in september and time is against him so he decided just to pay the R1200. Renewal fees for a passport is R600. Why was he forced to pay R1200