South African police chief protests call for criminal charges in Marikana mine killings

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's national police chief, suspended over her role in the 2012 killing of 34 striking miners at Lonmin's Marikana mine, said on Wednesday a watchdog's recommendation to prosecute her amounted to a witchhunt. The incident, the country's worst police killing since the end of apartheid rule in 1994, sparked intense public and media criticism of the police, mining companies, unions and the governing African National Congress. On Tuesday, South Africa's police watchdog said it had recommended to prosecutors that Riah Phiyega, the national police chief at the time of the Marikana killings, face criminal charges for defeating the ends of justice. "Such a tragic event has been used as a witchhunt against me and others," Phiyega told a news conference on Wednesday. "I am not a criminal." Phiyega was suspended in October last year pending an investigation set up by President Jacob Zuma into allegations of misconduct in how the country's first female police chief handled labour unrest at Lonmin in 2012. "Investigations are not complete. I'm concerned about undignified haste to register charges against me," she said, in reference to the ongoing presidential investigation. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Mark Heinrich)