***** Department not doing their job

Good day. I am complaining about the poor customer service received from Standard Bank ***** department on behalf of my mother. My mom lost her job in March 2025. She has been claiming UIF from April 2025. Everything went well until October 2025 when she realized there was unknown payments done from her account (Payments that she didn't recognize. Two Payments made to a Mr/ Mrs Itemba for R 1000 each. as well as a payment of R 300 to TG Maripa Prime Loans. (Keep in mind that we have no active loans, not even by a cash loan). Another payment of R 1000 made for a steam wallet (Steam is a gaming platform, my mother is 51, she does not even know what Steam is) and another for R 250 after which ***** department closed the account. Case number (CAS122/10/2025) was made at our local police offices. We had to pay R 160 for a new bank Card.

Then we get to November 2025, the UIF benefits were once again debited to her account for which she received an sms stating that there are *****ulent activities on her account and she was provided with a landline number, for which she held on the line for an hour and twenty minutes with no answer. Once again there was money taken out of our account without our knowledge and we had to Pay another R 160.00 for yet another new bank card.

December 2025 we received UIF benefits once more and once again the money was taken from our account via instant money voucher. and again ***** closed the account but did not fix the issue.

January 2026 i went with my mother so that her account could be fixed and she paid another R 160 for a new card, this time the interim branch manager did clear her standard bank app and set it up as if a new device, linking only my mother's phone to the account.

According to ***** department, we authorized those OTP's, which is strange because we never received any sms's

Now my question is this. Who's responsible for the amount of R 8000 lost and why did ***** department not do their job correctly? Even after account holder went to complain several times?

Will Standard bank reimburse us for money lost, or should we go to Ombudsman?

Standard Bank - Please explain or give a suitable resolution