--- title: South African Court Lifts Domestic Ban on Rhino Horn Trade description: Legally harvested horns could stifle the lucrative black market trade canonical: https://time.com/4127843/south-africa-rhino-horn/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-26T15:00:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:55:20.496Z article:section: World og:title: South African Court Lifts Domestic Ban on Rhino Horn Trade og:description: Legally harvested horns could stifle the lucrative black market trade og:url: https://time.com/4127843/south-africa-rhino-horn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60f72232f52ecaef/698872de2dce017db19e6ad0/rhino-horn.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Three rhinoceros walk in the Inverdoorn Game Reserve in South Africa on June 06, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: South African Court Lifts Domestic Ban on Rhino Horn Trade twitter:description: Legally harvested horns could stifle the lucrative black market trade twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60f72232f52ecaef/698872de2dce017db19e6ad0/rhino-horn.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # South African Court Lifts Domestic Ban on Rhino Horn Trade by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Nov 26, 2015 3:00 PM CUT  Three rhinoceros walk in the Inverdoorn Game Reserve in South Africa on June 06, 2015. Three rhinoceros walk in the Inverdoorn Game Reserve in South Africa on June 06, 2015.Thierry Falise—LightRocket/Getty Images by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Nov 26, 2015 3:00 PM CUT South Africa’s High Court lifted the domestic ban on the trade of rhino horns— a policy that was imposed by the government in 2009 to try and stem poaching. The judge’s ruling was delivered in the Pretoria high court after two South African game breeders, John Hume and Johan Kruger, fought a legal battle to overturn the moratorium, [reports _AFP_](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/african-judge-lifts-domestic-ban-rhino-horn-trade-105141311.html#ZGAxPOI "undefined"). The decision came ahead of next year’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg, South Africa, which could lift the global ban. The country is suffering from a poaching epidemic, which saw 1,215 rhino killed last year for their horn, a rate [that will see more rhino killed than born](http://time.com/4064380/black-mambas-south-africa-poachers/ "undefined") within the next few years. Some private rhino breeders say selling legally harvested horns could stifle the lucrative black market trade. “We believe the South African government is seriously contemplating making a proposal to CITES to allow international trade in rhino horns,” Izak du Toi, one of Hume’s lawyers, told AFP. “(Hume) hopes that a legalised trade will lead to a reduction in poaching.” South Africa’s government has 21-ton stockpile of rhino horns[ worth more than $1.36 billion](http://time.com/4064380/black-mambas-south-africa-poachers/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4127843/south-africa-rhino-horn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4127843/south-africa-rhino-horn/"},"headline":"South African Court Lifts Domestic Ban on Rhino Horn Trade","datePublished":"2015-11-26T15:00:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:55:20.496Z","description":"Legally harvested horns could stifle the lucrative black market trade","url":"https://time.com/4127843/south-africa-rhino-horn/","keywords":["South Africa","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60f72232f52ecaef/698872de2dce017db19e6ad0/rhino-horn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60f72232f52ecaef/698872de2dce017db19e6ad0/rhino-horn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Three rhinoceros walk in the Inverdoorn Game Reserve in South Africa on June 06, 2015.","caption":"Three rhinoceros walk in the Inverdoorn Game Reserve in South Africa on June 06, 2015.","creditText":"Thierry Falise—LightRocket/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/south-africa/","name":"South Africa"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4127843/south-africa-rhino-horn/","name":"South African Court Lifts Domestic Ban on Rhino Horn Trade"}}]}] ```