Vodacom doesn't care about people - deletes numbers at will

So, after being overseas for 3 months (and obviously not using my SA number for that time), I tried to use my phone and discovered that Vodacom (with no warning whatsoever) deleted my phone number. Never mind that people use their cellphone number for every OTP. This is a personal disaster. Vodacom's attitude when I called them was to say "sorry and good luck". I cannot believe that SA regulations would allow a cellphone operator to do this. Shocking. I will NEVER use Vodacom again. Heartless snakes!