Vodacom drops me in the ****

I would simp[ly like to know how it is possible that peoples numbers can be deleted from the network? Especially in instances like mine where i have been first a prepaid customer then contract for about 10 years. I umderstand things happens, servers go down etcetra, but to phone customer support and hear that many peopl has same issue, that is simply put "scary"', the worst of all is this number is my only income, since clients phone me then i go out to them, so now any clients that phones since friday will think im dead or similar and will not phone again since the message they hear is this number doesnt exist on the network. How can anybody compensate for the amount of business i potentially lost as well as clients!?