South Africa: 'Rhino Baron' John Hume in Court for 964 'Fraudulent' Horn Permit Deals

South African Police Service/Twitter
A rhino horn
19 August 2025
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Tony Carnie

The 83-year-old former property developer, who grew up on a sheep farm in the Cape and a cattle ranch in Zimbabwe, was released on R100,000 bail after appearing in the Pretoria Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, 19 August.

South African "rhino baron" John Frederick Hume built up the world's biggest private herd of more than 2,000 rhinos, betting to make a fortune by selling their horns legally to traders in the Far East.

But his dreams turned sour roughly two years ago when he was forced to sell his rhinos after failing to overturn an international ban on the sale of rhino horns from this increasingly threatened species -- and now he is in the dock with five fellow suspects, facing more than 50 criminal charges centred around allegations of theft, fraud and "possible racketeering and money laundering".

The 83-year-old former property developer, who grew up on a sheep farm in the Cape and a cattle ranch in Zimbabwe, was released on R100,000 bail after appearing in the Pretoria Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, 19 August.

With him in the dock were two attorneys, Izak du Toit and Elizabeth Catharina van Niekerk; former rhino ranch manager Johannes Hennop; insurance broker and part-time...

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