Updated

South African President Jacob Zuma has suspended the country's police commissioner, who faces an inquiry into alleged misconduct during the police shooting deaths of 34 miners during labor unrest in 2012.

Zuma's office said in a statement Wednesday that police Gen. Riah Phiyega had been suspended on full pay, pending the outcome of an investigation of her fitness to hold office and perform duties efficiently.

A government-appointed panel had found evidence of poor police planning in an investigation of the police killings near Marikana in 2012. The killings shocked South Africans, reminding some of violent tactics used by security forces during apartheid, the system of white minority rule that ended with all-race elections in 1994.