Cape Town - Parliament's former chief operations officer, Tango Lamani, has disappeared without trace, the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, Cape Town, heard on Thursday.
Lamani's disappearance caused the withdrawal of charges against former home affairs official Cleopatra Mosana, who is accused of hacking into his computer in Parliament.
According to the charge sheet, Lamani and Mosana were in a relationship for six years and then broke up.
Prosecutor Juan Agulhas alleges Mosana hacked Lamani's internet system after they broke up. Mosana was absent during proceedings on Thursday, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
Agulhas told the court Mosana had been excused from attending the proceedings, as she lived in Centurion, and he was obliged in any event to have the case removed from the roll as Lamani was untraceable.
Technically, the removal of the case from the roll amounted to the withdrawal of the charges against Mosana.
Agulhas said Lamani was no longer at his address, and had not answered cellphone calls from the investigating officer.
He said the subpoena to notify Lamani to attend the proceedings could not be served on him personally, and was placed in his letter box instead.
Mosana had faced 33 counts involving alleged violations of legislation pertaining to the protection of internet-related communications.
According to the charge sheet, she hacked Lamani's internet system between April and June 2011.
According to the charge sheet Lamani had confidential and sensitive information, and personal information, on his parliamentary PC.
Hacking is a term used by computer literates and means gaining access via the internet into another system, without the authority of the other system's owner.
According to the charge sheet, Parliament's IT department told Lamani his system had been hacked.
At that stage Mosana worked for home affairs in Cape Town, where one of the computers used to commit the crime was located.
Lamani's system was also hacked from a PC available to guests at the Hydro, a health resort at Stellenbosch, whilst Mosana was booked in there in May 2011.
According to the charge sheet, Mosana used her brother's 3G card and PC to access Lamani's system.
Sapa