My Number does not exist

I was recently out of the country with no access to my South African number. When I came back I heard my family members telling me that they were trying to call me and the number does not exist anymore. I called Vodacom and they advised me that I need to go the the vodacom shop to do a Sim Swap. When I went there, no one was willing to assis as they did not know what the issue was for them to see why cant I do a Sim Swap. I eventually called the customer care again and was told the same story. I have been using the number for a long time and a lot of login sites use this number for authentication and I cannot change that.

Can Vodacom assist me with getting my number back to existance so that I can use my number as I used to?