When inyanga Nino Mbatha walked into the Estcourt police station last weekend, officers wondered why he smelt so bad.

"He reeked of something," an officer told the Sunday Times this week.

The officer, who was an acquaintance of the well-known traditional healer, said policemen were not immediately sure what the smell was as Mbatha walked up to the desk at about 6pm on Friday.

They would find out in grisly fashion. In the bag Mbatha carried were putrid body parts - a piece of a leg and a hand.

"He said he was coming to report that he was tired of being made to eat human flesh and wanted out," said one of a group of officers close to the investigation.

"He produced these putrid limbs and some colleagues ran off."