Bad Service

Long story short, I defaulted on a vodacom contract which i have had for more than 13yrs, the number was deleted, I was handed over to a debt collection agency, the account was settled. Apon settling the account the collection agency told me I could get my number back, Vodacom credit department tells me that the number can be retreived and to go into a vodashop to do a sim swap. After wasting a trip to a vodashop they told me to call Vodacom legal department and find out what the process is and come back to do the sim swap as the number is still showing on the system its assigned to me, but after calling the legal department i was told this can't be done and they are now saying that the number is recycled. However if I dial the number, the voice says 'the number does not exist' which leads me to believe that the number is not in use. I would like to have this number back, due to business reasons but clearly no one at Vodacom seems to assist and give valid reasons why i can't get my number back, and the mixed responses from the start hasn't helped.