For years, Vodacom (and the other major networks) has been tricking us all. They have been charging us for a monthly service plan, without providing the service. They advertise the service plans as partially charging for the phone you get and partially charging for the service plan.

This creates several contradictions;

1. It is advertised that we are purchasing a phone AND a service plan, but cannot opt for one or the other. We are forced to purchase both together.
2. You do not have an option to cancel your contract with the network. If you attempt to do so, they will charge you the full contract price (including all future service plan and phone costs), regardless of whether you will be using the phone or service plan. Sometimes they give a 25% discount, but do not exclude the service plan cost.
3. We are told that this is the situation because we are purchasing a service plan, rather than buying the phone outright. But if this is the case, then Vodacom should ensure that the service is provided no matter what happens. If part of the service is the use of a phone, they should ensure that if the phone breaks it is immediately replaced or repaired. Otherwise we are paying for a service that is not available to us, which is against the Consumer Protection Act.

We the consumer ask Vodacom to provide us with;

1. An option to exit contracts with them reasonably.
2. Changing the structure of the contracts such that you purchase a phone seperately to the service plan. This is the norm in North America and Europe (see http://time.com/money/3907384/att-contracts-subsid...).
3. Stop locking us into endless contracts that only benefit Vodacom and not the consumer.
4. Stop lying to the consumer and taking advantage.