@Catherine , what a cynical mockery you make of Africa and the struggle against colonialism   ! It bellies the rightwing  fascist essence of the Racists and heirs of aparthied and UDI henchmen  that Africans waged a just liberation struggle against and will continue to wage  until a just order triumphs. Would you also view with nostalgia that Europe especially Russia  have remained in servitude under the yoke of Nazi  fascism? Go ahead.
The massacre of mine workers under the ANC government is a result of the despicable dressing of a  leftist movement in the borrowed garb of the fascist predescessors by its reactionary ruling class and the Western Nations .This criminal betrayal of the fallen combattants like Chris Harney, Steve Biko,  etc as well as the exclusion of Winnie Mandela from the rulling class  were  part of the deceptive arrangement foisted by  the British and Americans with the complicity of that arch stooge, Obasanjo from Nigeria and upheld by the rulers of ANC today . They have exposed their entirely bourgeoise credentials to the revulsion of all progressive humanity. A new socialist South Africa is inevitable as the class struggle continues.

 When a group of aggressive strikers attacked the police with traditional weapons and live ammunition, the police had no other choice but to shoot, which is a direct command from the chief of police. This is totally bogus. The miners were attacked first when their labor has been so thuroughly exploited that they live in poverty and when police are sent to sack their protest. The miners have every right to demand fair labor wages and inserting the police was nothing more than an attempt to silence the strikers by a show of force. The police presence was nothing more than the mine shaft owner stating explicitly that they own all facets of the worker's life and death will be dealt before basic human dignity is respected.

Ev ery striker there  and every police officer there understood exactly what was going on. The police were there to make sure those workers stayed stuffed in their poverty with dirt wages. 

The police didn't show up unarmed and unassuming. They showed up in full aggressive gear making it clearly obvious that they were there to do great harm to those around them.

You only end up with machine gun fire raking fleeing people when those with the machine guns are already amped up with the goal of murder for profit protection. Raking people over with gunfire is barbaric especially when you consider that as you believe, the police were there to make sure people were safe. Raking people over with gunfire is such a disgusting rejection of the idea that they're there to protect. It was an overwhelming display of power meant to set an example to anyone else that so much as thinks about asking for a fair wage to live on.

No one would have died and workers would have been paid a better wage to feed their kids with had the police stayed away. But in capitalism, profit margins supersede basic human dignity, the ability to feed kids, the expectation that cops not  plow through people with machine guns, and provide workers with decent living standards. The top one percent experiencing minor inconveniences is anathema and if children and fathers and mothers must be shot to pieces to keep minor inconvenience s at bay, then so be it. 

why is it that no one single media outlet is telling the full story on this article?
The police were asked to intervene to keep the peace. For a week the police kept the crowd under control with water guns and tear-gas and rubber bullets. When a group of aggressive strikers attacked the police with traditional weapons and live ammunition, the police had no other choice but to shoot, which is a direct command from the chief of police.