Virgin Active making it difficult to cancel membership???

I have been trying to cancel my Virgin Active gym membership since joining in February 2023. Since March I sent email letter to cancel. No feedback. But they have been debiting me. I now called the call centre spoke to Wasika who says to cancel, I must pay penalty fee of more than R1000. This is in addition to the ongoing debits they have already debited for including for month. I have not gone to gym even once! Is this even fair???