Poor service

My husband has been strunded out of RSA for over a year and has arrived home but his number is deactivated. We contacted MTN asking for service to retain his old number but he was informed that they cant assist him as his number is on the process of recycling and he must wait for someone to buy the number then he must buy it from 3rd party. This is insane because he want to retain his number reason being covid 19 didn't only affect him but the whole continent and why cant he be accomodated with use of his numbet