Sadly, a hike or bike ride in Cape Town’s Table Mountain National Park now brings with it the fear of being robbed, or worse.

SA National Parks (SANParks) has taken steps to increase security measures and the visibility of park rangers in recent times, but even then, your safety is not guaranteed.

Take the recent incident involving South African pro cyclist Nic Dlamini, for example, which went viral in the final days of last year.

Here’s the footage from that incident, which saw Dlamini suffer a broken arm during a ‘scuffle’ with Table Mountain rangers:

Sadly, that is far from the only incident involving aggressive behaviour from rangers, and it points to a systematic problem that has gone unchecked for years.

Carte Blanche caught wind of this trend, though, and they decided to ask “how the country’s reputation can be restored in the face of ongoing complaints against park rangers” in a recent segment.

I mean, we enjoy poking a little fun at cyclists (a ‘peloton of prawns’, for example), but the abuse they’ve consistently suffered at the hands of rangers is completely unacceptable.

Helmets on (tight Spandex optional), and off we go:

There are many rangers who do a sterling job of protecting hikers and cyclists in Table Mountain National Park, and they deserve credit for that, but those who resort to violence and don’t follow the correct procedures need to be rooted out.

[source:carteblanche]