A private rhino owner is one step closer to legally exporting rhino horn after the Northern Cape High Court yesterday denied the state leave to appeal against an earlier ruling to allow the sale of horns obtained from captive-bred rhinos to overseas markets.

This follows a court ruling in October 2025 where the Northern Cape Division of the High Court sitting in Kimberley, ruled that the government’s refusal to issue Wicus Diedericks permits to export rhino horn was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Shortly after the ruling was made, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) media liaison Thobile Zulu-Molobi said they would apply for leave to appeal.

Diedericks hails resounding victory for conservation

In a media statement issued yesterday, Diedericks called the court’s dismissal of the government’s application for leave to appeal the judgment ‘a resounding victory for wildlife conservation’.

The statement argues that a well-regulated trade in rhino horn will offer a humane and sustainable alternative to the current poaching of rhinos because horns are a renewable resource that grow back after they are cut off, can be harvested without injuring rhinos and will allow horns already in storage after they were cut off to protect rhinos from poaching, to be sold for money that can be ploughed back into conservation.

Breeding costs reach R20m

In 2025, Diedericks, who owns a conservation farm, told the court that it costs him about R20m to feed and protect the rhinos on his farm and that he was running out of funds to do so.

He applied for permits to sell rhino horn outside South Africa, which were denied in April 2023. Diedericks then turned to the court, arguing that an exemption to sell horn from rhinos bred in captivity was already provided for under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

“We call on Minister David Maynier to show courage and integrity, to honour the decision of the court and to transfer control of this resource away from organised crime and back into the hands of the people who are actually protecting these animals,” yesterday’s media statement read.

The DFFE did not respond to requests for comment.

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