14/07/2026
NOW OR NEVER FOR SOUTH AFRICAN RHINO
WAPFSA
Public Statement
14 July 2026
The Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA) warns that South Africa’s rhinos face a critical tipping point due to escalating poaching and controversial government policies that favour trophy hunting and the commercial wildlife trade.
South Africa stands at a defining moment in the future of rhino conservation. A recent High Court judgment, combined with growing political pressure to revive commercial trade in rhino horn, threatens to fundamentally reshape the country's conservation model. WAPFSA believes these developments risk undermining decades of progress in combating wildlife crime while placing South Africa in conflict with its constitutional obligations to protect biodiversity for present and future generations.
The illegal killing of rhinos for their horn is thought to be the single greatest threat to the future of both the black rhino and white rhino species. Although poaching remains an immediate threat, WAPFSA believes the greater long-term danger lies in policy decisions that normalise commercial trade in rhino horn and weaken the legal and ethical foundations of rhino conservation. The Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA) advocates against commercialization, captive breeding, and trophy hunting of rhino. WAPFSA emphasizes ethical conservation, the intrinsic value of all wild animals, and recommends the phasing out of all rhino, and lion, intensive breeding facilities established for commercial use. The legal stockpiling and sale of rhino horn, and lion bone, drives the illegal international trade and the continued illegal killing of rhino, and lion. WAPFSA argues that South Africa's domestic rhino horn stockpiles are compromised, unverified, and act as a driver of the illegal international black market. Rhinos are killed because their horn is highly sought after on the black market. The perceived high street value of rhino horn is perpetuated because rhino horn is stockpiled instead of being destroyed.
The reason for this WAPFSA statement is because the future of rhino conservation is at a pivotal turning point. South African, Wicus Diedericks, the owner of a 3000-hectare farm in the Norther Cape Province, called Rockwood Conservation has chosen to intensively breed rhino. This decision despite the well published, textbook disaster of a similar business model, when the primary goal to legalise the international rhino horn trade failed to materialise.
Diedericks also operates “highly regulated Southern White rhino hunting” at his farm. His philosophy "we don't breed to hunt, we hunt to protect, utilizing funds from these highly controlled hunts to cover the massive security, feeding, and veterinary costs required to protect their herd of over 400 rhino.”
Diedericks is currently in litigation against the South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). He argues, as did John Hume, that maintaining high-tech anti-poaching security and feeding his rhinos costs over R20 million annually, making his breeding operation financially unsustainable without a constant revenue stream. Diedericks is currently attempting to export at least 502 stockpiled horns to buyers.
A report reveals that the Diedericks plans to send rhino horns to multiple locations worldwide, including China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, the U.S., and Vietnam, with each receiving between three to five horns. However, the majority of the shipment is intended for a single address in Ontario, Canada raising heightened concerns about the legality and potential impact of such exports.
WAPFSA believes that if the rhino horn trade is legitimised and or even facilitated by the South African court, global market demand for rhino horn risks stimulating demand by creating perceptions of legitimacy within international markets. A previous one-off legal sale of elephant ivory in 2008 was associated with an elephant poaching spike and a dramatic increase in the illegal ivory trade. A legal supply of rhino horn may support a continuation or increase in rhino poaching, endangering the survival of rhino species in South Africa and in neighbouring African states.
To further complicate the present situation, WAPFSA has raised alarms about political appointments within the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), and has cautioned against the influence of pro-trade and commercial wildlife-utilization lobbies.
To validate WAPFSA’s most recent concerns, pro-rhino trade organisation SUCo-SA have drawn our attention to an internal seven-page DFFE memorandum prepared for Minister Barbara Creecy dated 1 August 2022. The existence of an unpublished internal legal memorandum - now being circulated publicly by organisations advocating commercial rhino horn trade - raises legitimate questions about transparency, policy development and the extent of stakeholder influence over government decision-making.
DFFE’s recent Biodiversity Management Plan for Black and White Rhinoceros has drawn widespread criticism for signalling a policy shift towards facilitating domestic and international rhino horn trade through the use of controversial interpretations of CITES exemptions, despite South Africa's ability to maintain stronger domestic conservation measures than those required under the Convention.
WAPFSA believes the judgment places excessive reliance on minimum obligations contained in CITES while giving insufficient weight to South Africa's own constitutional framework and domestic biodiversity legislation. International treaties establish minimum standards. States remain free - and in many circumstances obliged - to adopt stronger domestic protections where necessary to conserve biodiversity and fulfil constitutional obligations.
While the state has exhausted this immediate avenue of appeal, WAPFSA is hopeful that DFFE, now led by recently appointed Minister David Maynier WAPFSA is evaluating its options for a direct petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
South Africa now faces a clear choice. It can reinforce constitutional biodiversity governance by rejecting commercial rhino horn trade and strengthening protections for wild rhinos. Or it can return to policies that blur the line between conservation and commerce, increase pressure on already vulnerable populations, and undermine decades of international leadership. WAPFSA believes this is not simply a dispute about wildlife trade. It is a defining test of South Africa's constitutional commitment to protect biodiversity in the interests of present and future generations.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa
The Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA) is a national alliance and collaborative network of 30 non-governmental organisations that advocate for the protection and welfare of wild animals and their natural habitats. Acting as a collective body to lobby various government departments, particularly the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). Campaigning against the commercial exploitation of wildlife, specifically targeting captive breeding, trophy hunting, wildlife trading, and the commercial sale of animal parts Promoting conservation strategies grounded in ethics, science, and the harmonious co-existence of humans and wildlife.
WAPFSA rejects the proposition that wildlife should be conserved only when it generates commercial returns. South Africa's Constitution and environmental legislation recognise biodiversity as a public trust to be protected for present and future generations. Conservation cannot be reduced to a commercial business model dependent on the sale of body parts. Rhinos are not financial assets whose survival should depend on maintaining a market in their horns.
Diedericks VS Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment
The international trade in rhino horn has been banned since 1977 under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). To circumvent this, Diedericks invoked Article VII(5) of the CITES treaty. This exemption dictates that wildlife specimens "bred in captivity" for non-commercial or conservation purposes can be traded under less restrictive permit frameworks. He argued that because South Africa is a CITES signatory, this exemption is automatically part of domestic law, and the government’s blanket refusal to issue his export certificates was illegal.
In April 2023 the DFFE officially rejected Diedericks' applications to export the horns, maintaining that South Africa did not actively implement or recognize the Article VII exemption for commercial rhino trade. Diedericks promptly made an application in the High Court to compel the government to issue permits to export over 500 white rhino horns. He argued that selling ethically trimmed horns would fund his expensive anti-poaching and conservation operations. Diedericks formally sued the state under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) after provincial authorities denied his export permit applications in April 2023.
On 31 October 2025 the Northern Cape High Court in Kimberley ruled in Diedericks' favour. The judge declared that the CITES captive-bred exemption was indeed enforceable under South African law. The court ordered the provincial government to review Diedericks’ permit applications within seven days.
On 31 October 2025 Dr Dion George, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, called for a principle to move from words to action, from commitment to consequence, and reaffirmed South Africa's decisive steps to close the captive-bred lion industry, protect abalone under CITES, and oppose any reopening of trade in ivory or rhino horn.
On 3 November 2025 Wildlife Ranching South Africa publicly congratulated Diedericks:
“We extend our congratulations to our valued member Wicus Diedericks and his exceptional legal team on their recent success in the Northern Cape High Court matter against the MEC for Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and Minister Dion George.
This landmark judgement marks a significant milestone for the wildlife sector, affirming the right to the sustainable use and regulated trade of rhino horn. It represents a crucial step forward for conservation, the protection of private property rights, and the responsible management of South Africa’s natural resources.”
In May 2026 while the South African government formulated its appeal, international watchdogs like the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) published critical reports. The EIA flagged the lawsuit as a "reckless gambit", warning that the provided buyer information was inaccurate and that the exports would stimulate the black market and fuel poaching.
In July 2026 the Northern Cape High Court officially dismissed the state's application for leave to appeal with costs. The court reaffirmed that private breeding operations devoted to conservation have a legal right to fund their high-cost protection efforts through regulated trade.
Rhino Breeding Industry is Deeply Entangled with Organised Crime
Clearly not all rhino breeders are involved in illegal activity, however the South African rhino breeding industry itself has been deeply entangled with organized crime. Investigations reveal that major commercial breeders have used legal domestic permits to harvest horns and covertly funnel them into illegal transnational smuggling networks targeting Southeast Asia.
Two high profile cases include prominent South African rhino breeder, John Hume who was charged with smuggling rhino horns valued at $14 million. in August 2025.
Hume bred approximately 2,000 southern white rhinos, roughly 15% of the world’s remaining wild population, on his 7,800 hectare Platinum Rhino ranch. John Hume, allegedly ran out of funds to maintain this massive breeding operation and put the entire project up for auction. Allegedly, not a single bid was received for the business at auction. Allegedly, the rhinos were at severe risk of poaching and abandonment. In September 2023 the non-governmental organisation African Parks stepped in to purchase the farm situated in the North West Province of South Africa and approximately 2000 rhinos.
While John Hume’s southern white rhinos achieved unprecedented captive breeding success, critics heavily argued that their intensive, ranch-style confinement reduced their living conditions to that of livestock. “I am especially pleased to see that the very first translocation of some of the 2,000 white rhinos are going to this important landscape within South Africa, which is a flagship partnership in which communities are making a significant contribution to the conservation of our natural heritage,” says Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment. “On behalf of the Government of South Africa, we were very supportive of African Parks’ plan to purchase and rewild these rhino and remain a key partner in providing technical and scientific advice, and the support needed to carry out this conservation solution in South Africa and on the African continent.”
The other high profile controversial pro-trade rhino breeder is Dawie Groenewald. On the 19 June 2026, Dawie Groenewald, an ex-policeman, trophy hunter and rhino breeder, described by the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa as the mastermind behind a large-scale rhino horn trafficking enterprise finally entered into a plea agreement with the State ending a legal saga of more than a decade in the Polokwane High Court.
The charges against Groenewald stem from a well-designed rhino horn trafficking enterprise emanating from incidents as far back as 2008. According to the indictment, Groenewald, in his capacity as manager of a professional hunting outfitter “Out of Africa” and by employing professional hunters and other individuals, managed the sourcing of rhino horns from his own rhinos and from other private rhino owners to fuel the black market in Southeast Asia.
Groenewald was sentenced to a fine of R2 million or four-years imprisonment, and a further 10 years’ imprisonment suspended for 5 years, with strict conditions on the main count of managing an enterprise (Contravention of Section 2(1)(f) of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998).
Groenewald was further sentenced to high value fines and imprisonment on each of the other offences he was convicted on. The fines add up to more than R10 million and 36 years’ imprisonment. The sentences effectively restricted Groenewald for the next 5 years to act strictly in accordance with legislation relating to his rhino-related activities and or other restricted wildlife activities, or face a lengthy prison sentence if he does not comply with the strict conditions contained in the sentences imposed in terms of the plea and sentence agreement.
https://wapfsa.org/now-or-never-for-south-african-rhino/
📸 Gurcharan Roopra
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