UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICE

My name is Eagilwe Mervyn Dioka. On 26 February 2014 I completed and signed the Voluntary Call Limit Request (soft-lock) form to the amount of R110.00 on my official cellphone number *** and submitted it to Mr Elliot Magalela who was the contact person for official cellphones in the Department. The reason for doing this was that I did not want an open line because I knew that I could not afford to pay whatever the difference would be if the limit was exceeded. According to the attached printed email, on 27 February 2014, Mr Magalela sent an email to Mr M. Gcabashe and/or Ms M. Makgoba at Vodacom requesting them do the soft-lock on my above mentioned official cellphone number. On the very same day Ms Makgoba sent an email to NGAGOV requesting him/her to process the attached request. Then on 28 February 2014, NGAGOV sent Ms Mokgadi an email saying that the call limit is loaded. Mr Gcabashe and Mr Magalela were CC-ed in both emails. Another issue is that while using my official cellphone, there was a period when I could not view the balance on my official account which hindered me from monitoring the usage of airtime and data bundles. I have on a number of occasions requested Mr Magalela to assist me with instructing Vodacom to load the feature of checking balances on my account, but in vain. Furthermore, seeing that months and months passed by without being notified to pay any amount of money due to exceeding the limit, I was therefore under the impression that I was using my official airtime wisely and efficiently. Around March/April 2016 my official number got locked in that I could not make or receive calls. I then enquired with Mr Magalela as to what was going. Upon enquiring with Vodacom, Mr Magalela was informed that my official number was locked because there was an owing amount of R10 643.03 in the account. He then made follow ups as to what happened for the amount to reach this high without ever being notified at any stage and according to what he told me no one from Vodacom was willing to take responsibility because they were sending him from pillar to post. I am of the view that this was a deliberate move by Vodacom not to implement the soft-lock request because they knew that they stood to benefit financially which I find it very unfair to me. Like I have stated at the beginning that the main reason for a soft-lock request was that I knew I could not afford to pay any difference as a result of call limit being exceed. To this date I still cannot afford to pay any amount or the balance that is due on my official account. This account has been handed over to attorneys who are constantly harassing me and demanding that I pay and settle this account. I have submitted to them proof of communication between Vodacom employees whereby the one was confirming the loading of a soft-lock in my account, but the attorneys are just ignoring it. More so the account is handled by one person in that I would explain the same story to many people over and over. All I want to know is why is Vodacom not taking responsibility that they misled me into believing that the soft-lock was implemented also why do they want me to pay the account despite the fact that it is their fault the account is sitting with this balance which has now increased to R11 050.00.