MNT sim NOT working after 5 days!

My phone was ****** Thursday morning 12th of March at about 06:15. I reported the phone ****** to the 135 call centre at 6:25 requesting the sim to be blocked. At about 9H00 I visited the Menlyn MNT store for the first time to purchase a new cellphone and do a sim swap. Today is the 17th and my new phone is still not working properly. that is more than 5 days! I have been to several MNT branches / stores and have numerous times waited as instructed without any success. Yesterday at 21H00 I eventually succeeded to be activated on the network, but I can still NOT make or receive any phone calls. I have received 78 sms messages ranging from "order submitted" ,"queries closed", "successfully authenticated" and "authentication has failed". I am a MTN loyal client from 1999 and are not experiencing the service that I expect from MNT and that I pay for every single month. I have spent my working and leisure time driving to numerous stores on numerous occasions, spent hours on call centre calls, and even had to buy another phone and simcard in order to at least be able to call the call centre.