How John Hume allegedly schemed to defy global rhino horn trade ban

A dark shadow has been cast around the “conservation hero” mantle of South African rhino baron John Hume following sensational allegations that he purchased or purloined the identity documents of several indigent people as part of an elaborate scheme to fraudulently circumvent a 50-year-old global ban on the rhino horn trade.

The domestic sale of rhino horns remains legal in South Africa – provided that the details of buyers and sellers are recorded and regulated under a special permit scheme – but no horns can be traded at an international level.

A draft indictment by the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (The Hawks) – handed in to the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court earlier this week – sets out how Hume and five alleged accomplices allegedly conspired to get around this hurdle by submitting false permit applications to sell horns to fictitious domestic buyers. 

The 83-year-old former property developer, who built up a herd of more than 2,000 primarily captive-bred rhinos, has never tried to conceal his ambitions to sell and profit handsomely from (legally) selling the horns of these threatened animals to buyers in China, Vietnam and other foreign nations.

However, those ambitions have been thwarted by the continued maintenance of a global trade ban that came into effect in 1974, aimed at halting the slaughter of tens of thousands of rhinos across Africa and Asia by poachers and traders supplying the market for traditional Oriental medicines, aphrodisiacs, dagger handles or status symbols.

Hume and his five alleged co-conspirators have been released on bail after protesting their innocence and insisting that they “did everything by the book”. (See Hume’s message to family and relatives below.)

Through his attorneys, Ulrich Roux and Associates, Hume has indicated that he will plead not guilty.

Ulrich Roux, who is representing Hume and two other alleged conspirators, said: “Our clients deny any wrongdoing … our instructions are that they will plead not guilty”.

Should the State proceed to lay final charges and transfer the matter to the high court for trial, the accused would make representations for the charges to be withdrawn. 

Hawks investigation

But Hawks investigators, who have been on Hume’s trail since at least 2017, allege that he is at the centre of a major rhino horn “racketeering enterprise” that falsified numerous permits (some as recently as October 2024) to facilitate the illicit export of horns.

The draft indictment also sets out how nearly 1,000 rhino horns with an estimated black market value of nearly R500-million were “sold” to primarily indigent residents of Gqeberha and East London.

Some of these “buyers” were allegedly paid sums of between R50,000 and R20,000 each to supply copies of their ID documents, banking details or residential addresses, while others simply had their identity details stolen or purloined to obtain fraudulent sale permits from the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment.

Curiously, however, none of the supposed buyers had the financial means to pay for the horns, according to investigators, nor was there any proof of payment in several cases.

One of the five suspects, “Poena” Poggenpoel, allegedly ensured the safe transportation of the rhino horns during subsequent transactions with the illegal markets, while Hume’s network also engaged with one Mario Ian de Ridder, “a known smuggler of rhino horns and abalone to the Chinese”.

It is also alleged that Hume’s group made arrangements to provide De Ridder with 300kg of rhino horns for sale to the Chinese market and that De Ridder could pocket R5,000 per kilogram from any sales.

Significantly, the State acknowledges that it does not know where most of the horns ended up after being “sanitised” by fraudulent domestic sale permits.

Airport horn interception

However, several horns known to have been previously owned and sold by Hume turned up at Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo International Airport in August 2018, when police intercepted 56 horns in the process of being smuggled from Johannesburg to Vietnam, via Dubai.

Two couriers were later convicted of the illegal possession of these horns.

In another incident, it was alleged that the identity details of Mpumelelo Mesani (co-manager of the Champions Sports Bar in Cape Road, Gqeberha) were used to obtain a buyer’s permit for the fraudulent sale of numerous horns from one of Hume’s safety-secured rhino horn vaults in Centurion, Pretoria.

The Champions Sports Bar was allegedly owned by Charles Gerald Melville Hume, a relative of John Hume, and Mesani’s identity details were kept on file at Champions.

When interviewed later by The Hawks, Mesani expressed surprise at how his identity details came to be recorded in a permit application for the “legal” sale of 161 rhino horns.

Mesani denied that he ever applied for a permit to buy these horns and disputed the authenticity of “his signature” on the permit application.

Questions have also emerged about how two attorneys associated with Hume allegedly came to certify the identity details of several mostly indigent Eastern Cape residents listed as buyers of hundreds of horns from Hume’s Centurion stockpile.

According to the draft indictment, the scheme was, in many ways, a family affair, with Hume involving several relatives “to achieve the common goal in trafficking of rhino horns and rhino skins”.

The State alleges that Hume, in association with his five alleged co-conspirators, knew or ought to have known that their fraudulent enterprise “uses or invests, directly or indirectly (Hume’s) rhino horns, other rhino horns and rhino skins to fuel the illegal market”.

Meet ‘the family’

Accused No 1 – John Frederick Hume (83) has become well known for breeding up a herd of roughly 2,000 white and black rhino at his Buffalo Dreams game ranch near the town of Klerksdorp. In September 2023, after it became clear that Hume’s legal sales ambition had collapsed, the entire herd ( but none of the stockpiled horns) was sold to the African Parks group, which plans to “rewild” and translocate these animals domestically and across the continent.

According to the draft indictment, Hume has challenged the international ban on horn trading several times and has used his “in-house legal and compliance officials to formulate these challenges” and also “associates his enterprise activities with his family or relatives to achieve the common goal in trafficking of rhino horns and rhino skins”.

Accused No 2 – Clive John Melville is listed as a family member of Hume and brother of Charles Gerald Melville Hume, who allegedly recruited “so called potential buyers” for the selling/donation of Hume’s rhino horn stockpile as well as sourcing ID documents and/or proof of residences and/or bank statements of persons, especially from the Gqeberha, Eastern Cape region, that did not have the financial capacity to buy rhino horns, but were willing to receive payment for their details”.

Clive John Melville, with the assistance of Charles Gerald Melville Hume and Hugo Mathews, allegedly obtained identification from people “who did not have any knowledge that their personal particulars would be used to apply for selling and buying permits for rhino horns”.

Accused No 3 – Izak du Toit is a qualified legal practitioner and alleged legal and compliance officer for Hume.

In this role, he had “managed the administration of the operation by means of permit applications, correspondence and communication” with the national Minister of Environmental Affairs and he “knew and ought to reasonably have known that these permit applications formed part of the enterprise activities by … certifying documents of personal particulars as true copies and attached it as part of the permit application without ensuring and satisfying himself of the authenticity thereof”.

He had therefore enabled and managed the process of selling at least part of Hume’s horn stockpile.

Accused No 4 – Catherina Elizabeth van Niekerk is described as a qualified and experienced legal practitioner, associated with Hume as an in-house legal and compliance officer.

She allegedly managed the administration of the operation “by means of permit applications, correspondence and communication with the Minister of Environmental Affairs” and knew or ought to “have reasonably known that these permit applications formed part of the (criminal) enterprise activities”.

Accused No 5 – Poena Poggenpoel is described as a part-time farmer and “helicopter owner” from the Free State who “participated and associated himself with the enterprise activities” of Hume and others “in the receiving or retaining of rhino horns” and also having access to illegal horn markets.

He allegedly ensured the safe transportation of the rhino horns during the transactions with illegal markets and received financial benefits from illegal transactions and handing over money to Charles Gerald Melville Hume.

Accused No 6 – Johnny Hennop was employed to manage Hume’s rhino breeding ranch and was also “responsible for the management of the rhino stockpiles and the handing over of rhino horns in the storage facilities when transactions were concluded”.

He was also alleged to have facilitated the handing over and acceptance of proxy documents for the rhino horns to be released at the storage facility and “knew or ought reasonably to have known that these rhino horn transactions formed part of the (criminal) enterprise affairs”.

Hennop had also “conspired” to export at least 10 rhino hides to the Eastern Cape that were later sold to Chinese buyers based in Johannesburg. DM

Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard.

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