The Supreme Court of Appeal has been asked to untangle a complex knot of legal questions that have emerged in a controversial court case about rhino horn trading. The ruling opens the door for South African rhino breeders to sell their horns internationally - despite a 50-year ban on such sales. Northern Cape rhino breeder and hunting lodge owner Hendrick "Wicus" Diedericks will have to delay his plan to sell rhino horns to foreign buyers, despite winning two court cases that pave the pathway towards this goal. Shortly before the Christmas holidays the Northern Cape Division of the High Court in Kimberley issued a surprising legal ruling that appears to threaten a decades-long ban on global rhino horn sales by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES is a 1975 international treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats posed by the international wildlife trade. Diedericks, a self-described "philanthropist" and conservationist, went to court in 2023 to argue that CITES rules allow him to sell his horns because the animals were bred in captivity and therefore no longer wild.