Gym trying to rob clients because of covid

I have a 36 month contract I called just before lock down to cancel the cancelation fee was R1600 for 33 months. I was still in contact with someone in finance. The next moment covid happened and emails was returned. After everything calming down I called again, the email got rejected again because the person no longer works there. An now that I have less months left from my contract to cancel they want to claim covid costs by charging me more for the cancelation and claim I've lost all discount rates. Cause I bought my contract in a black Friday special what the hell. This is theft. This doesn't even make sense and delay because of covid and negligence of resigned staff