“The National Police Commissioner General Riah Phiyega submitted, just before 23h00 last night [Friday], her comments and views to President Jacob Zuma, following recommendations of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry chaired by Honourable Judge Ian Gordon Farlam,” the presidency said in a statement.

Zuma would study the response to determine whether any intervention was warranted, and the nature of such intervention, it said.

The Farlam Commission of Inquiry, set up to investigate the 2012 Marikana massacre in North West, recommended in its report released last month that the national commissioner face an inquiry into her fitness to hold office.

Phiyega was given until Friday to submit her reasons in writing to the president as to why she should not face an inquiry.

The commission of inquiry’s 646-page report ordered the probe into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office while clearing Cabinet ministers of responsibility for the worst loss of life in a single post-apartheid police operation.

Thirty-four miners died in police gunfire on August 16, 2012. In the preceding week, ten people had been killed as tensions soared over a strike at Lonmin’s Marikana operations.