Repeated SIM swap failures

After my phone was ****** and the SIM blocked, and the handset eventually replaced through MTN insurance, I obtained my new SIM and a SIM swap was requested at MTN Rondebosch store on 1 November. After 24 hours the SIM had not activated, and I queried this with the MTN contract contact centre and with the Activations contact centre, neither of whom were able to help beyond "Escalating the activation failure to Technical, which takes up to 48 hours on working days". After numerous follow ups with the store (who requested activation again on 3 November) and various contact centres I went to the store at 11 am on 4 November. Since the activation had failed twice on that SIM, they had to issue me with a new SIM, and I was promised that it would activate (in the 2-24 hour activation period).

24 hours later, on 5 November, the SIM had still not activated. I queried this again with the contact centre (store is closed on Sundays), spoke to a supervisor, and was again informed that the issue had to be "escalated to technical" with the same 48 hour working day turnaround. I have now been without a working phone for 10 days, and it has been 4 days since I had a phone and a SIM, but no activation. I have spent many hours on the phone and had to take time off work, but am unable to speak to a human being who can tell me what has gone wrong or who can fix my problem. I will have to take more time off work on Monday to try to fix this, and even then it may be 48 hours or more. Departments cannot communicate directly with each other, which means faults get stuck in an endless loop. When I asked if I could get free data or something as compensation for the inconvenience: "we don't do that."

I have all relevant call reference numbers, escalation numbers, fault numbers, store numbers and SIM card numbers, should it be within the power of anyone at MTN to assist.