Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa told local radio that the violence at London-listed Lonmin's Marikana mine on Thursday after armed workers approached officers who were cordoning off an area with barbed wire.
"The police were directing the barbed wire ... when people had guns, and people were advancing as I say, with their pangas (machetes) and everything else including firearms," he said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
He said that more than 30 had died, adding: "A lot of people were injured and the number keeps on going up."
"This was not supposed to happen, and we have always emphasised this thing that we have laws in this country which allows people to apply for strike, for marching, for demonstration, and we still think people should not ignore the pillars of the land," he said.
"Because if you come up with wildcat strikes and such things ... it's a very terrible situation for everybody in the community."
Thursday's deadly clash has already been dubbed the "Marikana massacre" by local media. Ten people, including two police, had already been killed during the weeklong strike.
A group of workers demanding a tripling of their wages began the strike on August 10, but the stayaway quickly degenerated into violent clashes between the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the upstart Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).
