On Friday, the government said it would oppose an online auction of rhino horns due to start on Monday, as outraged conservationists said the sale would undermine the global ban on rhino trade. The three-day auction by John Hume, who runs the world’s biggest rhino farm south of Johannesburg, comes after a ban on domestic trade in the country was lifted three months ago. The government said it would fight Hume’s court application to be granted sale permits. "The Minister of Environmental Affairs is opposing the application," the department said in a statement on Friday, declining to comment further. Hume’s lawyer Izak du Toit claimed the permits had already been approved — but not issued. "We will go to the High Court on an urgent basis," he told AFP. Hume and other campaigners say poaching can only be halted by meeting the huge demand from Asia through legally "harvesting" horn from anaesthetised live rhinos. He has stockpiles of six tonnes of horns and wants to place 500kg under th...
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