MTN Contract Cancellation Impossibility

Regarding MTN and MTN Retentions:

I have been trying to cancel my MTN contract for 3 months now. The MTN retentions call centre seems to have no agents manning the lines. I have waited on calls to the retentions department for over half an hour at a time (listening to what must be the most annoying holding music in the country).

I have tested out of curiosity, the option to "upgrade the contract" (rather than a cancellation), someone answers you within a minute (this on the 135 contact number).

I have sent emails in an attempt to have the contract canceled, only to receive silent calls from mtn service numbers. (The irony.. poor call quality from mtn themselves)

What specifically spurred this review is that a week prior to the end-date of my contract (today), I receive a sales call from an extremely disrespectful MTN agent ***), claiming that my contract has been flagged in the red due to my deal being an old mtn deal, also that I cannot cancel the contract due to their being an outstanding balance equivalent to the monthly device cost being included - Frustrating, that many agents can be spared to harass us for more business, but no one to deal with actual customer concerns.

One cannot tell the difference between ***** and legitimate agents due to MTN's atrocious customer service and turnaround times, and I do not have much hope for resolution, having seen the number of similar reviews from people on the site.

MTN are the epitome of a lazy profit-driven corporate exploiting its customers, unregulated in a 3rd world environment.