MTN is responsible due to their STRIKE

My Phone was ****** on 12 June and when I tried to report it on 808 I could not get through to customer care. Living on a farm and being caretaker for both my elderly parents and mother in law, it is not easy to just drive into town at any time. I did however, drive to Rustenburg the following morning to report my phone ****** and did a sim swop. While in MTN shop, I tried to call my husband from my tablet only to find that the account has been suspended. I asked the man at MTN if he could check what the problem was, and he said all looked ok on the system and all showed still active. Hoping this was only a glitch in the system due to the strike, I returned home only to find my husband's phone was also suspended. He does all his business on the cell phone so it was a problem for him, and also living on a farm one HAS to have contact with other neighbours. I tried for 4 days to contact 808 to inquire why we were suspended. Eventually I drove through to Rustenburg again, and was told I had made international calls to the value of R10 000 the night of the 12th. We were forced to pay this amount to open our phones. This could have been avoided, I want MTN to reimburse me!!!!