Vodacom finally resolved my issue with their faulty contract phone.

Finally, after 8 months of fighting, Vodacom has decided to admit that I was sold a faulty phone and they gave me a new one yesterday and I was promised compensation for having to deal with this out-of-box-fault. I want to send a special thank you to Bontle from Vodacom Social Media and Danika from Vodacom Pavillion, these ladies heard me and assisted to the best of their ability. Vodacom, not sure I'd recommend you to anyone but sadly I'm stuck with you (better the devil you know)