Unable to do SIM sop

I purchased a MTN sim towards the end of October and had it registered with MTN. I was given the Cell number ********** 457. Recently the sim appeared to be faulty because it connected to MTN intermittently.

On trying to do a sim swop the number did not show on their system and I was told by one of their retail outlets to discard the sim , get a new sim with a new number,

One of the consultants even went as far as to tell me this must be a Telkom, Vodacom or Cell C number.

I explained that I phoned their call centre '173' and they confirmed that the number is with MTN but I will not be able to do a sim swop

I suggested that I suspect that this was a recycled number which was not properly deleted from their system It turned out that this was the case and that the number was actually held by a company called Matrix Ltd.

I had a previous number where I encountered the same problem. I discarded that sim and replaced it with another sim and number. I now realise it could have been the same problem.

I fear that there could be numerous clients of MTN possessing sim cards that they will have to discard should they wish to do sim swops in future.

MTN Should sort out this problem asap