Cell C did not activate international roaming in time

I’ve been a customer (on contract) at Cell C for more than a decade. In January 2019 I flew to Australia and I phoned the morning of departure to ask Cell C to activate international roaming and they did it immediately. So yesterday I flew to Malaysia. When I phoned Cell C customer service to open international roaming, they informed me that it will take 24 to 48 hours because my contract is less than R1000 per month. And I was flying in 6 hours time! So I informed Cell C that my contract has always been less than R1000 per month and that this was not an issue earlier this year. They informed me that they will escalate the issue. Needless to say, nothing happened and now I’m overseas, in a foreign country, and I can’t use my phone. This is so disappointing. How can they change policy without informing us? And why does it take 24 to 48 hours to activate international roaming for customers with a contract less than R1000 per month, but for customers with a contract of more than R1000 per month they can do it immediately? I’m so disappointed and since I travel internationally often, I’ll definitely cancel my contract with Cell C as soon as I can, as I’m now overseas with no phone. What if there is a crisis and I need to make a phone call? I am really disappointed in the service. Reference number: ***. A side note to Cell C, it won't help to try and phone me to apologize, because, as I said, I'm overseas and I have no international roaming.