JOHANNESBURG: South African authorities have detained veteran rhino breeder John Hume, 83, accusing him of masterminding a vast illegal network trafficking rhino horns worth more than $14 million worldwide.
Hume — who until last year owned one of the world’s largest private rhino herds at the 7,800-hectare Platinum Rhino ranch near Johannesburg — was arrested along with five others after a “complex investigation” by the Hawks, South Africa’s specialised crime unit. The probe, launched in 2017, uncovered fraudulent permits and links to transnational trafficking syndicates.
Prosecutors allege Hume’s group obtained permits for 964 rhino horns to be sold domestically, but illegally shipped them to markets in Southeast Asia, where demand remains high. Rhino horn exports are banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), though limited domestic trade is legal in South Africa.
Environment minister Dion George hailed the arrests as a “powerful demonstration of South Africa’s resolve to protect its natural heritage.”
Hume, a Zimbabwean-born businessman, once controlled nearly 2,000 rhinos — around 15% of the global southern white rhino population. In 2023, his herd was sold to conservation NGO African Parks, which aims to rewild the animals.
Rhino numbers across Africa have plummeted due to decades of hunting and poaching. Alongside ivory, rhino horn remains highly sought in Asia, prized as a status symbol and wrongly believed to have medicinal or aphrodisiac properties.
