No Ticket Refund and Excessive Cancellation Fees

I recently made a booking for myself and my fiance on Safair for flights from Cape Town to PE return. Approximately 2 weeks before the flight my fiance underwent emergency surgery which meant she could no longer travel over the intended period. A doctor's letter to that effect was provided. The CPA states that under circumstances of death or hospitalisation a service provider shall provide a full refund (without any deduction!) to the consumer. Safair are now hiding behind the fact that my fiance was not in a hospital (despite the fact that the letter stated that she could not travel and was basically bed-bound at home) as an excuse to charge a 40% cancellation fee!!! This fee is not only unjustified, it is also unreasonably high. One would think that a start-up airline with so many complaints against it, and which is facing stiff competition from established competitors, would use the only weapon it might have to fend against the competition, namely service excellence. Instead this airline doesn't even provide mediocre service. I can't see them lasting to the end of the year, and they don't deserve to either, at least not with their current attitude to service provision.