WWF comes out strongly against rhino auction
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has condemned the planned auction of rhino horn set to take place tomorrow.
The organisation's Jo Shaw says law enforcement officials do not have the capacity to manage parallel legal trade on top of illegal poaching and trafficking.
"It's hard to understand why anyone would buy rhino horn within South Africa when there are limited numbers of local consumers and it's still illegal to export rhino horn internationally, meaning markets in Asia cannot be accessed."
The auction is being run by the world's largest private owner of rhino, John Hume.
The Private Rhino Owners' Association's chairman Pelham Jones says the auction has been postponed to tomorrow to allow bidders' time to register and apply for permits.
"Today is for registration and to view the material. The actual action starts at 14h00 on Wednesday," says Jones.
Hume is set to sell 264 rhino horns during this week's auction.
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"We strongly support this auction. The private sector currently owns 37% of the national population, more rhino than the rest of Africa combined. Breeders are bearing security costs which now succeed R2 billion. It's about bringing revenue back to rhino conservation," says Jones.