NTT Pro Cycling has listed six demands it wants the national park authorities in South Africa to act on following the arrest of its rider Nic Dlamini.
The WorldTour cyclist suffered a broken arm in the incident while out training on Friday and has since undergone surgery for the injury.
Dlamini, a 24-year-old about to go into his third year at
WorldTour level, was arrested by SANParks personnel while training in Table
Mountain National Park.
The video of the incident, recorded by a rider who came
upon the scene, shows him being arrested with force and clearly feeling severe
pain; later diagnosed as a badly broken arm.
SANParks claimed in a statement that Dlamini had entered
the national park without paying the conservation fee or showing a permit when
requested.
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It added “the situation spiraled causing the suspect to
injure himself during the ordeal”.
The South African Government said it had instructed
SANParks to suspend the park rangers at the scene of the arrest pending
investigation.
NTT Pro Cycling has been strongly critical of the scenes
captured in the video of the arrest and it has made demands of SANParks, whose
staff bundled Dlamini into a vehicle after his arm had been broken.
It has called on SANParks to urgently account for:
- The level and scale of physicality employed by the officials in subduing Nicholas, which saw him fracture his arm. Despite being visibly distressed after being pulled off his bicycle at high speed, which saw him crash, there can be no justification for the level of violence meted out to him.
- The subsequent release of this video on social media has gathered huge momentum, around the world. As one of South Africa’s premier tourist attractions what type of message does this send to both local and foreign visitors who want to visit it?
- Nicholas has an extensive race programme for 2020 already in place. This unnecessary injury will now have a serious effect on that, as well as his chances of racing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
NTT Pro Cycling also called on SANParks to:
- Implement immediate disciplinary procedures against the officials involved.
- Make a full public apology to both Nicholas, as well as the eyewitness, who was clearly intimidated by the officials while filming this incident.
- Following the enormous response to this incident, it’s clear that SANParks need to engage with the greater cycling community in Cape Town to forge a positive relationship for the future. We look forward to seeing them take the lead in this respect.
Douglas Ryder, team principal at NTT Pro Cycling said the
incident had shock the team.
“I was both devastated and appalled to see the video of
Nicholas on social media,” he said in a statement.
“To watch a young man who I know so well in such
unnecessary distress made me feel sick, to be honest. The way in which he was
treated is simply not acceptable.”
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