A 24-year-old man was arrested in Butterworth for carrying a human head in his luggage at a bus rank in the Eastern Cape on Saturday, police said.
Captain Jackson Manatha said the man was arrested around 11am after a tip-off.
The man had already been on a bus when police found him and was taken to the police station where a human finger was found in his pocket.
During questioning the 24-year-old told police he was going to Cape Town and his luggage was still on the bus.
”Police chased the bus to Ndabakazi station. The man was ordered to fetch his luggage and when he opened it an old woman’s head and her two arms were found,” said Manatha.
”It is alleged that the suspect murdered his 85-year-old grandmother on Friday by cutting her throat like a goat at Dyushu Locality Ceru Village in Butterworth.”
People in the area became suspicious when someone saw the man pulling ”something” towards Upper Ceru Junior Secondary School at about 10pm, said Manatha.
Another villager saw the headless body at the school about 6am on Saturday.
”He [the villager] saw the woman’s clothes with blood on them at the toilet and the naked body was inside a deep hole next to the toilet,” Manatha said.
The man would appear at the Butterworth Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
A similar case was reported at Butterworth in 1981 when a man tried to sell a human head to a funeral parlour, said Manatha. — Sapa