Unauthrosized De-activation of my number

I am utterly disguisted at CellC as a service provider. My CellC contract expired over a year ago. i got it converted to Pre-Paid and continued as normal. As off the Morning of the 29th November 2017, the sim card did not receive signal, as it is a norm in my area for network to drop, i was not to concerned as it usually comes back on after a short while. This time it did not come on. I went to the Cell C store in Pmb, and they apparently could not help me, as i need to contact '140' Customer care. I did, to which the guy over the phone said that my sim is faulty, so i need to go and buy a new sim and do a sim swop. So i bought a sim, Rica'd it, and called the customer care, to which the representative tells me that my Number has been deactivated and has been recycled. And theres nothing that i can do about it. Basically the excuse it that i did not use my sim in over 3 months, so the 'Computer' automatically recycles it. I know that is just an excuse because i got calls right up until the 25th, and i did have airtime on it as it is linked to my Whatsapp, etc. So now basically my number is lost, theres no accountability, and they cannot revert what has been done.