Cellphone number

I have had this number from when I was at school and that was in 2004/2005I have a contract with Vodacom and started to not debit my account from 2023, they called and I made an arrangement for the 2 or 3 months which they didn’t debit.

Between the 8 and 12 July my son was in hospital and they disconnected my number. The following week we were in and out of hospital as my son was still not well.

I called Vodacom Clearwater 15 July 2024 and I was told to come in the store as this number has been disconnected since 2016. I couldn’t come in and on the 25 July I went to Vodacom Clearwater and was finally able to speak to a consultant over the phone who told me that the method of payment was cash, how is that possible for a contract number and that I had 7 days to make call them before the number was as recycled, the store when I called on 15 July did not tell me.

I want my number back as this number holds a lot of my personal info