President Jacob Zuma was on Thursday due to release the official report into the police killing of 34 South African striking workers at Marikana mine in 2012, his office said.
The report into the shooting was handed to the president on March 31, after more than two years of hearings plagued by delays.
Rights groups and lawyers representing the killed and injured miners have been clamouring since then for Zuma to make the document public.
The president’s office said the report would finally be published after he addresses the nation on public television on Thursday night. The August 16 shooting was the worst violence South Africa has witnessed since the advent of democracy in 1994.
Days after the killings, Zuma set up the Farlam Commission of Inquiry to investigate the events at Marikana, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.
The commission was granted powers to suggest names of individuals to be criminally charged. But proceedings were plagued with delays from the start and the deadline was repeatedly extended.
The police were heavily criticised during the commission, accused of using excessive force against the miners, and of a widespread cover-up.
In the days leading up to the attack, 10 others were murdered in violence around the platinum mine — including non-striking miners, security guards and two police officers who were hacked to death.
Another 72 strikers were wounded in the shooting.
– ‘Revenge’ –
The labour unrest had also been exacerbated by a platinum sector turf war between two unions: the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, and the National Union of Mineworkers which is aligned to the ruling African National Congress party.
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