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South African police chief is suspended amid inquiry into police killings of Marikana miners

Associated Press
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In this photo taken Thursday, July 9, 2015 national police commissioner Riah Phiyega delivers a speech at an event where confiscated weapons were smelted at a metal processing plant in Vereeniging, South Africa. Phiyega will remain on suspension with full pay until the board of inquiry into her fitness to hold office has completed its work, the presidency said Wednesday, Oct. 14 2015.(AP Photo/Denis Farrell) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken Thursday, July 9, 2015 national police commissioner Riah Phiyega delivers a speech at an event where confiscated weapons were smelted at a metal processing plant in Vereeniging, South Africa. Phiyega will remain on suspension with full pay until the board of inquiry into her fitness to hold office has completed its work, the presidency said Wednesday, Oct. 14 2015.(AP Photo/Denis Farrell) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken Thursday, July 9, 2015 national police commissioner Riah Phiyega inspects confiscated weapons prior to smelting at a metal processing plant in Vereeniging, South Africa. Phiyega will remain on suspension with full pay until the board of inquiry into her fitness to hold office has completed its work, the presidency said Wednesday, Oct. 14 2015.(AP Photo/Denis Farrell) (The Associated Press)

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.