<P> Revelations on the incident starting with academic investigations and then followed up by reporting by Greg Marinovich has shown that most of the killings happened off camera many minutes after some of the murders were recorded on television . </P> <P> According to the New York Times, "Frans Baleni, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, defended the police in an interview with Kaya FM, a radio station" saying that "The police were patient, but these people were extremely armed with dangerous weapons ." </P> <P> The shooting was one of the worst by the South African authorities since the end of the apartheid era in South Africa . Baleni and other NUM officials have also accused' third forces' of being behind the Marikana strikes . </P> <P> It has been argued that there has been an exodus from NUM . According to Justice Malala, writing in The Guardian, "The NUM has lost all credibility and is bleeding members . Its already well - paid secretary, Baleni, was awarded a salary increase of more than 40% last year and his total salary package is just more than R105 000 a month . NUM leaders have refused to get out of police armoured vehicles to address workers ." Others have also argued that NUM's membership numbers are inflated and, now, as a result of the strikes in the North West, its membership likely stands at around 150,000 . </P>

History of the national union of mineworkers south africa