South Africa’s former Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has been accused of being involved in the killing of 34 mineworkers at Marikana in 2012.

During a court hearing on Tuesday, Dali Mpofu, a lawyer representing the surviving mineworkers, said the former minister had labeled the mining strike a criminal act, paving the way for a deadly confrontation by police forces in August 2012.

Mpofu said that police forces shot at the striking mineworkers as a result of Shabangu’s labeling of the protests as “acts of criminality.”

“You knew that the re-characterization of what was going on at Lonmin, of those people to criminals, would bring them within the ambit of your statement, namely that they must be killed,” the lawyer said.

Mpofu also referred to a statement by the former minister addressed to police forces back in 2008. In the statement, she called on police officers to kill “if they threaten you or the community, you have one shot and it must be a kill-shot.”

However, Shabangu has rejected the accusations, calling the attorney’s attempts to hold her responsible for the deaths “pathetic.”

Shabangu also said she did not call the strikes criminal acts.

South Africa’s mining sector has been shaken by strikes and violent protests since August 2012. Dozens of people have been killed in the strike-related violence ever since.

In late March, Amplats, Implats and Lonmin platinum firms said they had lost nearly 10 billion rands (about $921 million) in revenues because of the strikes.