GEPF: what service? There is NO service.

My mother passed away on the 22nd of November, she was a pensioner on this fund. We instituted a funeral claim on the 1st of December 2020. The information was faxed to the GEPF. Up to this date we have received no feedback from them. Not even an acknowledgment of receipt. To phone them is impossible, you spend hours on the phone. On the 15th of December 2020 we emailed the GEPF to establish how my father can claim a spouses benefit. Till today we received no feedback from them. We were starting to become frustrated by the lack of reply. Until my father received a letter telling him that he has to pay back my mothers pension for November (she passed on the 22nd of November!). He is now a ''debtor''. Is this how they treat pensioners? No funeral benefit paid. Though they obviously now she passed due to the demand letter. No feedback on the spouses pension? This is a fund with terrible service, treating their pensioners with contempt and disrespect.