The massacre on 16 August was the result of the decision by SAPS forcibly to disperse the striking mineworkers, who throughout the week had gathered on a public koppie (Afrikaans for a small hilltop) neighbouring the mine.

This wave of strikes led President Jacob Zuma to deploy the national military to the platinum-mining belt in mid-September and collectively made 2012 the most protest-filled year in the country since the end of apartheid.

[8][17] Some were reportedly encouraged by the fact that, in July 2012, Lonmin had agreed to grant a housing allowance increase to miners following an unprotected strike, suggesting that the mine was willing to negotiate outside of the collective wage agreement.

[23] The International Labour Organisation agreed, saying that workers in mines such as Marikana were frequently "exposed to a variety of safety hazards: falling rocks, exposure to dust, intensive noise, fumes and high temperatures, among others".

[27] On at least three occasions during the evening of 10 August, Lonmin security officers fired rubber bullets into crowds of strikers, who they said were armed with traditional weapons, including knobkerries and spears.

There, they decided for their safety to move their meetings to the nearby koppie (Afrikaans for a small hilltop), which was located on public land and easily accessible from the various Lonmin mines in the area and from the Marikana and Wonderkop settlements.

[17][27] Video footage shows Major-General William Mpembe, the deputy provincial police commissioner for North West province, attempting to negotiate with the strikers, who he demanded should disarm – they were carrying sticks and pangas – before being allowed to rejoin the group on the koppie.

[33] At the same time he expressed alarm that "the escalating violence has been allowed to continue unabated by the law enforcement agencies" and called for the deployment of a special task force or the military to "deal decisively with the criminal elements in Rustenberg and its surrounding mine".

On the morning of 16 August, the SAPS operational command held a meeting at which they referred to the day ahead as "D-Day", suggesting that they were prepared to enforce the so-called tactical option.

[27] A police report submitted in the early hours of 17 August to the President and the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation provided the following account of the events at scene two:The dispersion action had commenced at this time and the protesters were driven from their stronghold to a high bushy ground in the close vicinity.

[27] In addition, analyst David Bruce of the Institute for Security Studies argued that the shootings at scene two probably involved "a strong element of vindictive hostility towards the strikers", pointing in particular to the various witness statements that claimed that some of the victims had been shot while surrendering.

"[49] President Jacob Zuma – who at the time was in Maputo, Mozambique, attending a summit of the Southern African Development Community[50] – condemned the killings but made no reference to the actions of the police, saying in a statement: We are shocked and dismayed at this senseless violence.

[51]The following day, Zuma returned early from Mozambique to visit the site of the shootings in Rustenberg, and announced that he would establish a commission of inquiry to discover "the real cause" of the tragedy (see below).

[67] In the aftermath of the massacre, the company faced serious economic pressure, given already low platinum prices on the world market: its share value had declined by millions of dollars, and it soon announced that it would be unable to meet its annual production targets and might have to renegotiate its debt payments.

[54] Strikers told the press that, unless Lonmin met the demands of the strike, they would return not to work but to the koppie, viewing the ultimatum as an "insult" to those who had been killed, arrested, and hospitalised on 16 August.

[88] Before dawn on 15 September, 500 SAPS officers, assisted by the army, raided mineworkers' hostels in Marikana, seizing weapons including metal rods, machetes, spears, and sticks.

[89][90] Six men were arrested during the raids for illegal possession of weapons and drugs,[90] and another six were detained in protests in Marikana later in the day as SAPS used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a gathering of Lonmin strikers.

[98][96] The strikers had apparently been informed of the offer on the afternoon of 18 September,[95] and, the following day, they gathered at Wonderkop stadium – where rockdrillers had initially agreed to strike on 9 August – to celebrate the agreement, singing the national anthem.

[104] Jonny Steinberg – a South African-born academic at Oxford University – suggested that the repressive police response at Marikana might have reflected an attempt by President Zuma to project authority over an increasingly fractured country and government ahead of the ANC's 53rd National Conference in December 2012.

[21] The massacre attracted a political response abroad: in Auckland, protesters attacked the South African High Commission with paint bombs;[112] and the White House's Deputy Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, told reporters that, "The American people are saddened at the tragic loss of life [at the Lonmin mines] and express our condolences to the families of those who have lost loved ones in this incident.

"[113] In the weeks after the massacre, Zuma sought to reassure international investors: while visiting the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, he acknowledged the tragedy – saying, "Certainly we regarded the incident of Marikana as an unfortunate one.

"[114] On 21 August, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula became the first South African government official to apologise for the shooting when, during a visit to the Marikana koppie, she asked for forgiveness from angry miners who held up plastic packets of bullet casings to her.

reflected that: Perhaps the most important lesson of Marikana is that the state can gun down dozens of black workers with little or no backlash from "civil society", the judicial system or from within the institutions that supposedly form the bedrock of democracy...

[131] In a controversial series of stand-up comedy shows, South African comedian Trevor Noah made light of the events, appearing to side with the police by arguing that they had "used teargas all week" but "couldn't control people" and "had to use ammunition because the strikers had weapons".

[68] Indeed, some politicians – notably Julius Malema – argued that other mineworkers should take up the Lonmin workers' demand for a R12,5000 wage and called for a nationwide strike in South Africa's mining sector, including with the objective of removing the incumbent NUM leadership.

[135] Later, operations were suspended at Atlatsa Resources's Bokoni platinum mine in Limpopo province, where workers launched a wildcat strike on 1 October,[137] ultimately leading to the dismissal of 2,161 miners[138] and not fully resolved until December.

[139] Impala, which had hosted a wildcat strike earlier in 2012, was largely unaffected, but issued a pre-emptive 4.8 per cent pay rise in September to avert the risk of further industrial action.

[12][165] Ezulwini employed only 1,900 employees, but, the following week, Gold One dismissed 1,435 of them;[166] it then suspended operations at the mine for a full month in order to ensure the safety of its workers and assets.

[105][155] In late August 2012, President Zuma appointed a commission of inquiry into the events at Marikana, to be chaired by Ian Farlam, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Al Jazeera's Tania Page said that the site had been cleaned since the shootings and that the commission's challenge would be "to see the truth and find an objective balance when all the parties involved have had time to cover their tracks".