By A Correspondent- Murder suspect Emmanuel Anesu Matsika, who was arrested after being found with a decomposing human head in a plastic bag, has turned down State lawyers saying “most people serving the harshest sentences at Chikurubi prison were represented by state lawyers.”

 Matsika was arrested after he was found with the head in December 2018, while driving around the town with the head in the trunk of his FunCargo vehicle.

In one incident he decided to pull the head from the bag to scare a taxi driver, while pretending to be going on some errands.

Matsika has this week appeared before Harare magistrate Rumbidzayi Mugwagwa and is due to stand trial at the High Court on June 8.

He turned down the chance to have legal help telling the court: “I do not want a lawyer because I realised that most people serving the harshest sentences at Chikurubi prison were represented by state lawyers.

“I will be a self-actor,” he said.

The State’s case is that in 2018, Matsika approached a witch doctor called Boss Maki seeking spiritual intervention to solve his personal problems.

Maki apparently then told Matsika his troubles were a result of evil spirits emanating from the underworld and that he was supposed to kill somebody to overcome the demons and become the devil himself.

The prosecution allege Matsika was told to decapitate a human being and keep the head on his person all the time until it developed maggots, as this would silence the avenging spirit of the deceased person.

He was also allegedly instructed not to wipe the weapon used in the murder until the deceased person’s spirit had been calmed.

Three weeks later the court heard claims Matsika picked a victim at random and carried out the appalling murder.

In a bizarre twist, the court heard Matsika later decided to steal from people using the severed head to frighten them.

On December 22, he got in a taxi with the decomposing head and pretended he was going to pick up something in Belvedere, Harare.

-statemedia