Unhappy and angry

I was working for this school for more than a year now ,unfortunately I have found a job to other school so I had to resign at the end of February 2024, I worked the whole month so they were supposed to pay me for February but they saw that I have resigned and they didn't bother to pay me and I really need my February payment since I have to pay the rent and buy food, when I ask them to pay me they are now creating stories and they are rude to me this school was already not treating their workers well because I have teaching qualification but I was getting paid R5000 on top of that they already owe me R12000 because other months they were paying less salary, so I want all the money that they owe me which is R17000