20 year old number deactivated 10 days ago

<p>I've had my MTN prepaid number for about 20 years now and have never ported and been using it on MTN all this time.</p> <p>I had an issue where my phone was taken in for a case and was never returned.</p> <p>In the interim, I realised that it was going on 3 months and I went into an MTN store to do a sim swop. My POA was over 3 months old and the consultant said that they needed a more recent one.</p> <p>When I went back a week later, I was told that my number was deactivated and I couldn't get it back.</p> <p>I've made numerous calls to customer care and no one wants to assist. </p> <p>How can I be without the only number I've had for the last 20 years. Friends now tell me I should have ported to Vodacom and my number would've still been on as they give more than 6 months on an unused sim card but I've been loyal to MTN all these years.</p> <p>I need to get my number back as banks and everyone else business related has this number.</p> <p> The number is ********** </p>