Officials Say South African Police Lied About Mine Strike Killings

34 were killed; officers claimed self-defense.

South African police lied about the Marikana shootings last year, in which 34 striking miners were killed, a commission of inquiry has said.

Police falsified or withheld documents, and gave false accounts of events, it said.

The police shooting of the miners at the Lonmin-owned platinum mine in August 2012 shocked the nation.

The police said they were acting in self-defence, days after two officers had been hacked to death by protesters.

The commission was appointed by President Jacob Zuma to investigate the deaths of the 34 miners—the most deadly police action since the end of white minority rule in 1994.