sim swap a disaster cell c

My partner who is a foreigner and therefore unfami**** with rica bought a sim card years ago which he has been using. He lost his phone several days ago and we went to the cell c branch to get sim swap but they were unable to help as it turns out his sim is rica'd under someone else's details. We tried anyway to phone the customer care line to see if they could help, and they then suspended his sim from being swapped obviously due to the fact that he is not the registered person on sim. So how does cell c not have a backup plan for such situations as i myself have experienced this before because it's so common to buy a SIM which turns out to be *******ly rica'd. I am able to provide dialled numbers and he recharges regularly sometime so much we dont know the exact amount he uses this number for business call we stuck now