Convictions in one case & indictment in another challenge the hunter / conservationist narrative
POLOKWANE, South Africa––Decades of hunter/conservationist pretense that poor and/or corrupt Africans are poaching rhinos toward extinction to satiate demand for rhino horn from greedy rich Asians, despite the alleged efforts of game farmers to save the species for trophy hunters to shoot, may finally be collapsing through the conviction of game farm and hunting safari owner Dawie Groenewald, 58, for rhino horn poaching and trafficking on an unprecedented scale.
Similar charges are pending against John Hume, 84, also a purported longtime rhino conservationist.
Both Groenewald, an Afrikaner, and Hume, of British descent, posed as economic victims of rhino poaching and horn trafficking, while they themselves ran the biggest rhino poaching and horn trafficking rackets yet brought to justice.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Black folks blamed by white folks for more than 40 years
Sort of. Justice delayed for 20 years before the Groenewald conviction and before Hume was ever even hauled into court meant justice denied for thousands of dead rhinoceroses, at a minimum, while dozens of African alleged poachers were shot on sight over m0re than 40 years by rangers who believed they were protecting rhinos from a soaring poaching toll, while the actual biggest culprits were believed to be above suspicion.
Groenewald, with his wife Sariette Groenewald and hunting guide Tielman Erasmus, ran Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris.
Charged with them were veterinarian Karel Toet, his wife Marisa Toet, veterinarian Manie du Plessis, and five other alleged co-conspirators.
Suspected of killing rhinos to sell the horns to Chinese and Vietnamese brokers, the Groenewalds in particular were known to have business relationships with Safari Club International and influential members of the Robert Mugabe (1924-2019) regime in Zimbabwe, which aggressively courted Chinese investment.
“Groenewald, regarded as the mastermind”
At a trial held from June 17 through June 19, 2026 before the Limpopo Division of the High Court of South Africa, in the city of Polokwane, “The state finalized its case against Dawie Groenewald and Tielman Erasmus,” posted Mashudu Malabi, South African National Parks Administration regional spokesperson for the Limpopo Division.
“Groenewald, regarded as the mastermind behind a large-scale rhino horn trafficking enterprise, finally entered into a plea agreement with the state in this matter, ending the pending legal saga of more than a decade regarding allegations of trafficking rhino horns, racketeering and money laundering,” Mashudu Malabi said.
But the actual elapsed time was just short of two decades, recalled Rachel Savage, Johannesburg correspondent for the Guardian.
Trump gave some suspects a way out
“South African police first started investigating the case in 2007,” Savage wrote. “In 2010, 11 people were arrested, they said, including ‘professional hunters, veterinary surgeons, a helicopter pilot and general workers involved in an organized criminal enterprise.”
ANIMALS 24-7 reported extensively on the case at the time. See Alleged rhino poaching gang served trophy hunters as well as Asian medicinal demand.
“However,” continued Savage, “more than 15 years of delays followed, amid legal challenges, including in the constitutional court. Two of the original 11 accused died while the case was in progress, as well as 10 of the state’s 185 witnesses, while others emigrated,” apparently including to the United States among the first 6,000 Afrikaners granted refugee status by U.S. president Donald Trump.
(See Zimbabwean animal advocate Cheryl Rodrigues, 59.)
Plea deals
“Dawie Groenewald and Tielman Erasmus had faced more than 1,700 charges ranging from illegally hunting and dehorning rhinos to racketeering and money laundering,” Savage recounted.
“Groenewald was handed a two million rand fine,” worth $121,000 in U.S. dollars, “or four years’ imprisonment after reaching a plea deal with the state.
Tielman Erasmus “was fined 100,000 rand or three years in prison, said the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks unit,” Savage added.
Co-defendants Karel Toet, his wife Marisa Toet, and Koos Pronk are next due in court on August 20, 2026, Savage said.
(Facebook photo)
Poaching goes on where the rhinos are
The conservation significance of the case, Savage explained, is that “South Africa has about a third of the world’s critically endangered black rhino population, according to the International Rhino Foundation. It also has more than 75% of all southern white rhinos, whose global population dropped 10% to fewer than 16,000 in 2024.”
More than 80% of all rhino poaching cases known to the International Rhino Foundation occur in South Africa, Savage mentioned.
John Hume, Savage remembered, “was charged with five others with being part of a horn trafficking syndicate. Hume bred white rhinos on his farm and campaigned for horn trading to be legalized and regulated in South Africa. He had about 2,000 rhinos on his farm,” Platinum Rhino, “when he sold it in 2023, claiming he could no longer afford to run it.”
Hume owned world’s biggest rhino farm
“Hume, the former owner of what is thought to be the world’s largest rhino farm, denied allegations that he trafficked horns from South Africa to South East Asia,” reported BBC News correspondent Mayeni Jones from Johannesburg after Hume’s first court appearance, on August 18, 2025.
Hume “and five others, including a lawyer and a game reserve manager, appeared in court on 55 charges, including theft, money laundering, and fraud,” Jones said.
“The group were allegedly part of an international rhino horn trafficking syndicate between 2017 and 2024, prosecutors said.”
Hume and co-defendants during that time “are accused of smuggling more than 960 horns, obtaining permits to sell them locally, when the true intention was to export the horns to South East Asia, where they are used in traditional medicine,” Jones detailed.
“The sale of rhino horns is legal between citizens in South Africa, but exporting them is not allowed,” Jones explained.
“Hume was born in Zimbabwe and raised on a sheep farm. He made a living developing holiday resorts, before turning to [alleged] conservation in the 1990s,” Jones mentioned.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Kruger National Park poacher captured
Rhino poaching operations conforming to the poor-and/or-corrupt Africans-serving-rich-Asians stereotype have also been falling lately.
Notorious Kruger National Park rhino poacher Goodwill Sibongiseni Mathebula was on May 22, 2026 sentenced by the Skukuza Regional Court to serve 20 years in prison, reported Strategic Protection of Threatened Species founder Peter Milton via Facebook.
Mathebula was captured, Milton wrote, when “Rangers conducting patrols intercepted three suspects. One of the armed suspects opened fire on the rangers. The rangers returned fire and injured Mathebula, while his two co-accused fled the scene. Subsequent investigation by the rangers recovered a firearm next to Mathebula, as well as a bag containing fresh rhino horns and other weapons. A freshly killed rhino carcass was also discovered.
“DNA evidence linked the recovered rhino horns to the carcass. A ballistic report also confirmed that the bullet recovered from the carcass had been fired from the firearm found in Mathebula’s possession,” Milton recounted.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Did cop turned poacher fink on fellow perps?
The Mathebula sentencing came six days after Joseph “Big Joe” Nyalungu “was shot dead by unknown assailants on May 16, 2026 near Kruger National Park, following a failed attempt on his life eight days earlier,” reported Spoorthy Raman for Mongabay.
“Nyalungu, a former police officer, faced more than 40 counts of rhino horn trafficking from 2016-2019 alone, and was allegedly responsible for killing thousands of rhinos in South Africa’s greater Kruger Area,” Ramen summarized.
“He had been arrested multiple times, dating back to at least 2011,” Ramen continued, “and faced charges related to murder, kidnapping, money laundering and unlawful possession of firearms and explosives used in poaching — though he was never convicted and was released on bail each time.”
Five rhino poachers killed a week earlier
The Nyalungu assassination followed by about a week a shootout in which police killed five suspected rhino poachers police near Hluhluwe in northern KwaZulu-Natal state, South Africa.
“Police say officers acted on intelligence about suspects traveling toward a game reserve before setting up a stop-and-search operation,” reported the KwaZulu-Natal news channel Newswatch.
“Police recovered a hunting rifle and two pistols,” Newswatch added.
“The latest shootout comes as government intensifies efforts to protect the country’s rhino population through a revised Black & White Rhino Biodiversity Management Plan,” Newswatch noted.
New strategy pushes dehorning
“Forestry, fisheries and environment minister Willie Aucamp says the updated conservation strategy marks a turning point in South Africa’s fight against rhino poaching,” paraphrased Newswatch.
“Aucamp says 352 rhinos were poached nationally between January and December 2025, down from 420 in 2024,” Newswatch continued, while locally “Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park recorded a drop in poaching cases from 198 to 63, following large-scale dehorning interventions aimed at protecting the animals.”
The theory behind dehorning rhinos is that hornless rhinos will not attract poachers. Dehorning, however, reduces mating behavior among a species already slow to reproduce, and creates stocks of rhino horn that can be stolen for illegal sale––an invitation to corruption,
International sale of rhino horn has been prohibited by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1977.
Another shootout
While shooting alleged poachers has officially been de-emphasized, the Lateba Herald reported on June 21. 2026 that an alleged poacher had been killed in a shootout “on a farm under the Pienaarsrivier policing precinct in the Waterberg District.”
According to the police report, the Lateba Herald said, “They approached the suspects, who fled into the nearby bushes. One suspect was observed carrying a rifle, and another a backpack.
“While tracking one suspect, APU members and the drone came under fire from him. Police returned fire in self-defense, and the suspect was fatally wounded.
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Business as usual. Thanking you for this coverage.
Again, yet another macabre testimonial to the evil that lies in man’s soul..but with immense gratitude for your investigative reporting.
I had no notion of this, yet, sadly, it does not surprise me that these abhorrent hunter ‘-conservationists’ excuses for real ‘men’ would sell their souls for ‘gold’.
And this time their target was magnificent rhino’s who were born to inhabit South Africa, not to become target practice for adrenaline rushes for affluent persons without a conscience and zero understanding of the role these animals play in the balance of nature in that country, or trinkets sold to please Asians, unaware or equally not appreciative of the rhino’s special role.
All sickening!
Finally, some persons of that vile ilk is being convicted of this crime!
Yes, the world has been prejudiced and blind to this, despite many animal advocates being highly suspicious of the Safari Club activities for many years.
Where money is involved, it is also understood that our deeply flawed species is exceedingly vulnerable to being avaricious in spades.
We are aware that trafficking animals is one of world most lucrative of businesses. There is not a Hell hot enough to hold these people.
Let us hope that indeed finally there is a viable new strategy that marks a turning point in this shameful inhumane poaching activity and that the world might yet see a growth in the remaining population of the beloved rhino.
And a DECLINE in the population of disgusting, avaricious and corrupt human garbage.