South Africa’s rhino population increased by nearly 5% in 2025 but 230 rhinos were killed by poachers in the first eight months of this year, says the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment.
The country had an estimated minimum population of 15 096 rhinos at the end of 2025, comprising at least 12 531 white rhinos and 2 565 black rhinos. This was a 4.9% increase from 2024, the department said on World Rhino Day on Tuesday.
Poaching has also declined compared with the same period last year, with 230 rhinos killed nationally between January and August 2026, compared with 248 in the first eight months of 2025.
In the Kruger National Park, 114 rhinos were poached during the period, down from 123 in the corresponding period last year.
KwaZulu-Natal recorded a sharper decline, with 29 rhinos poached in the first eight months of 2026, compared with 67 in the same period last year. But poaching increased in several other provinces, including Mpumalanga, where 14 rhinos were killed compared with three in 2025, and North West, which recorded 19 compared with 14.
The department said the decline had coincided with continued dehorning, maintenance and strengthened protection and law enforcement measures.
In 2025, poaching accounted for 2.2% of South Africa’s rhino population, below the estimated 3.5% population sustainability threshold.
But the department warned that every rhino lost to poaching had consequences beyond the individual animal, including the loss of breeding animals, orphaned calves and disruption to population recovery.
The country’s efforts to rebuild rhino populations are also extending beyond its borders.
WWF-SA’s Black Rhino Range Expansion Programme has moved 20 black rhinos from KwaZulu-Natal to Botswana, in a translocation that effectively doubles the country’s black rhino population.
The rhinos, captured in June and held in quarantine, were moved in two 36-hour road trips to a remote and secure site in Botswana in early September. The project said all 20 were settling into their new home.
The move is only the second cross-border translocation undertaken by the programme since it began in 2003. Its first was to Malawi’s Liwonde National Park in 2019.
Jeff Cooke, the programme’s leader, said finding sufficiently large areas of suitable habitat for black rhinos was becoming increasingly difficult, prompting the programme to expand its work into neighbouring countries.
“In doing this, we are also helping population recovery in countries where black rhino numbers have plummeted in recent years,” he said.
According to the WWF, Botswana had an estimated 25 black rhinos before the translocation. The new population brings the number to about 45.
Since 2003, the programme has established 18 new black rhino populations and moved 310 animals, including the latest 20. More than 220 surviving calves have been recorded on programme sites.
The programme seeks areas of about 20 000 hectares or more where black rhino populations can establish and breed. WWF said the expansion of suitable habitat could also benefit other species, including wild dogs, vultures and cheetahs.
But the trafficking networks behind rhino poaching remain a major focus for law enforcement.
The national integrated strategy to combat wildlife trafficking targets the broader criminal network, from poachers to traffickers and financiers.
The department said progress in the second year of the strategy had been particularly strong in coordinated investigations, prosecutions, intelligence sharing and targeted operations.
Among the cases highlighted by the department was that of Dawie Groenewald, whom it described as the mastermind behind a large-scale rhino horn trafficking enterprise.
The Polokwane High Court finalised the case on 6 August after Groenewald entered into a plea agreement with the state, ending more than a decade of litigation involving allegations of rhino horn trafficking, racketeering and money laundering.
The department said Groenewald was sentenced to fines exceeding R10 million and prison terms totalling 36 years across the offences, with some imprisonment suspended. His co-accused, Tielman Erasmus, received a fine of R100 000 or three years’ imprisonment.
The department said the rhinos involved in Groenewald’s case were not poached but the horns were sourced from his own rhinos and other private rhino owners to supply the black market in Southeast Asia.
In another case, Sifiso Mbuyane was sentenced to 28 years’ direct imprisonment after being convicted of, among other offences, killing two rhinos in Kruger National Park.
Two former security officers, Nyiko Gumede and Nomsa Ndlovu, were each sentenced to 12 years’ direct imprisonment after being convicted of killing a rhino and conspiracy to commit a crime. Their co-accused, Ludwick Mhlaba, was sentenced to 10 years for killing a rhino.
South Africa’s 10-year biodiversity management plan for black and white rhinos, published in April, aims to grow and secure rhino populations through biological management and support for population expansion projects.
The department is establishing a national rhino conservation coordination committee to oversee implementation of the plan.
The department said the fight against rhino poaching required cooperation between conservation authorities, law-enforcement and criminal justice agencies, government, financial institutions, communities, the private sector and international partners.