Not refunding a customers and not being penalized

Kyle Richardson, booked his December Holiday for Dec 2014 in Mozambique, then booked his flight tickets with Travelstart. After paying in full for his accommodation in Mozambique, he followed up for a payment confirmation, to find out the lodge is under liquidation, He immediately and timorously cancelled the flight tickets with Travelstart in Nov 2014, to find out to his horror, that even though he cancelled in time for a reason totally out of his control that Travelstart were going to take R 3000.00 from his R 12 000.00 paid for his tickets as a cancellation fee, which is actually ridiculous, as there was more than enough time to get those tickets sold in time. He was also told that he would receive the refund back within 3 to 5 weeks, this has clearly not happened. After numerous communication with Travelstart and the same excuse for months, that they need to get hold of the airline manager to approve the refund before anything can happen. This all just seems so wrong and unfair, firstly the booking was made directly with Travelstart and the payment was also made to them. We were penalized for cancelling yet they are not being penalised for a 3 month delay of a refund??<br>