Useless customer service and zero communication

Absolutely disgusted, I have a prepaid SIM card with MTN that I’ve had for over a decade now, I recently got a contract phone through MTN and have been using that number in my phone and the prepaid sim as a back up. When I turn the phone on today there’s no service, and when I query it with MTN customer care I’m told the number was deactivated and recycled into the system with zero warning. When I ask to get my number back I’m told I can’t sim swop or anything. The number was deactivated with absolutely NO warning either and I can’t get the number I’ve used for over a decade back because someone just decided to deactivate it with no warning.