two traffickers of rhino horns have been sentenced by a South African court in what the police say was the world’s largest such case, partly bringing to an end an almost two-decade legal saga.
Dawie Groenewald and Tielman Erasmus had faced more than 1 700 charges ranging from illegally hunting and dehorning rhinos to racketeering and money laundering.
Groenewald, described by South African police as the mastermind of the enterprise, was handed a R2 million fine or four years’ imprisonment after reaching a plea deal with the state.
His co-accused was fined R100 000 or three years in prison, says the Hawks unit.
South Africa has about a third of the world’s critically endangered black rhino population, according to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF). It also has more than 75% of all southern white rhinos, whose global population dropped 10% to fewer than 16 000 in 2024.
The country is plagued by rhino horn poaching, accounting for 81% of poaching cases in Africa in 2024, according to the IRF.
Rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine but has no health benefits for humans.
South African police had first started investigating the case in 2007. In 2010, 11 people were arrested, they say, including “professional hunters, veterinary surgeons, a helicopter pilot and general workers involved in an organised criminal enterprise”.
However, more than 15 years of delays followed. 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.
The case against three others, Karel Toet, Marisa Toet and Koos Pronk, was postponed to 20 August, the police say.
Last year South African rhino farmer John Hume was charged with five others of being part of a horn trafficking syndicate. Hume bred white rhinos on his farm and campaigned for horn trading to be legalised and regulated in South Africa. He had about 2 000 rhinos on his farm when he sold it in 2023, claiming he could no longer afford to run it.
– Agence France-Presse contributed to this article.
– The Guardian
