Gym company is still charging for expired contracts that happened during covid time

I visited gym company today and was told that I owe them R2000,when coivd first started in 2020, I stopped going gym in the same year my contract expired. I was told I needed to cancel my expired contract, and the gym is still charging me gym fees even though I have not used it. This is not good practice,how can a gym charge u for not using their gym as well ask you to cancel an expired contract, disgusting I refuse to a victim to these *******, and will not pay a cent to rogues.