Former African National Congress (ANC) youth Leader Julius Malema arrived at the Marikana township where he is expected to address thousands of residents and striking miners after the tragic shooting of 34 miners during a police crackdown that drew comparisons to apartheid-era brutality.

Women cheered as Mr Malema, expelled from the ANC last year for sowing divisions in the party, arrived. He has won wide popularity among poor South African youth with his calls for nationalisation of mines and seizure of white-owned land.

With tensions running high in the region, police are on high alert to prevent a reoccurrence happening after the coverage of the massacre made world headlines, forcing the South African government to respond urgently with President Jacob Zuma cutting short his trip to the SADC meeting in Mozambique to attend to matters in the area.

Meanwhile the striking mineworkers have expressed their anger Mr Zuma did not address them on Friday during his visit to the massacre scene at nearby Lonmin mine shaft.

The police killing of 34 striking platinum miners on Thursday in the bloodiest security operation since the end of white rule cut to the quick of South Africa's psyche, with searching questions asked of its post-apartheid soul.