Faulty device and bad repair services

I opened a contract Telkom through their online service last year. In less the a year the device (Iphone 12 Mini) encountered a hardware issue which resulted in the device not being able to connect to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The apple store advised me that its a fault in the device and needs to be sorted out by Telkom due it being on contract and still under warranty. I took the device to a Telkom express store in Alberton to book it in their their repair Centre. The device was continuously sent back and forth with no work or assessments being done. In April the phone was returned to the store still not fixed. The phone then got booked in once again through a different Telkom store and now that the phone is out of warranty we are being requested to pay a sum of R5804,99, which I refuse to pay as the device was booked for initial assessment within the warranty period. I have not missed a single month account payment to date but i find myself paying for a phone that is not repaired (still in the possession of the repair team) and all I got is a sim card.

Telkom need to take responsibility for selling a faulty device and pay for the repairs or issue me a new device. This is ridiculous and i hope this post gets seen by the right people who will take the necessary actions to resolve this matter