Citrusdal is a seemingly idyllic farming town named after the fruit it grows. Nestled in a valley at the base of the Western Cape’s Cederberg mountains, it’s home to rows and rows of orange and lemon trees.

The tangerines in the orchards are still as green as the leaves. Harvest will come in July and August, then the fruit will be picked and boxed for export to the UK, Europe and the US.

But as tensions heighten between the South African government and Trump’s administration, this vital export may never land on US soil.

South Africa is one of the biggest exporters in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade agreement providing Sub-Saharan countries with preferential access to US markets through tariff-free imports.

AGOA is due for renewal at the end of September 2025 and is incredibly vulnerable to getting the axe from Mr Trump, as he imposes tariffs on his closest neighbours Canada and Mexico.

Here in Citrusdal, alarms are sounding as market experts recommend South Africa withdraws from AGOA willingly to offset risk, rather than face the storm in September.

Gerrit van der Merwe, chair of the Citrus Growers’ Association and managing director of ALG Estates, says he hopes an adult in the room will make the right decision.

“We take a step back, that’s a hit. Not just on the farmers but on all the community. If we are missing out on prosperity the slack will probably get picked up either by a citrus farmer in Peru or some farmer in Spain,” says Gerrit.

South Africa is the world’s second-largest exporter of citrus after Spain. Though only 9% of South African citrus goes to the US, a complete withdrawal of tariff-free access could impact thousands of jobs.

“AGOA is probably responsible for 35,000 jobs in the citrus industry in South Africa but also indirectly responsible for 25,000 jobs in the US for truck driving, repacking, running cold rooms and that type of thing. We have a 35 to 45% unemployment rate in South Africa. We need wins,” says Gerrit.

A black labourer on the back of a tractor waves as he drives by. On the edges of the farm, workers sit in the backs of farm wagons full of insect-infected oranges they cleared from the trees to keep them healthy.

They are working land that was acquired during the founding years of the Dutch occupation of the Cape from the 17th century and passed down 13 generations to Gerrit and his family.

The racialised legacy of land ownership was entrenched by apartheid rule during South Africa’s mining boom and remains the reality here. White people make up 7% of the population but own more than half the land.

A new land expropriation act signed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa allows for the government to seize land in the public interest.

The bill is yet to be enacted but has drawn the ire of Mr Trump, who responded with an executive order calling the actions egregious and hateful towards “racially disfavoured landowners” and offered asylum to Afrikaners.

It is reported 67,000 farmers have shown interest in US asylum but Gerrit says that is not an option for the citrus growers in his association.

“I don’t think anybody is taking it seriously. You will always have a fringe in any society of 5 or 10% that will take it up and will carry that flag but most of the people I deal with love South Africa and would like to stay,” he says.

“We do feel a bit isolated about the fear-mongering because we don’t see it on a daily basis. We are not that security conscious on a daily basis.”

He adds: “I’m not exposed to the guys up north and I think that some people are in really tough situations.”

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Up north, Wannie Scribante proudly shows us the security set-up protecting his small private farm.

His cameras have AI technology that spots the movement of people, and he shares stills of his black labourers as they work the edges of the farm.

He hasn’t had a single intrusion or theft since he set up the cameras three years ago but still feels threatened by squatters and the risk of land expropriation.

“I’m concerned that this has been pushed by a government that is not honest with us. Why do they write in expropriation without compensation? Then they tell me we’re not going to do that? It is silly to spend so much time on it and do a law if you’re not going to do that,” says Wannie.

Though Wannie does not believe the debunked claims of a white genocide being repeated by Elon Musk, he still appreciates the cover coming from the Oval Office after feeling ignored by the South African government.

“They say why don’t you talk to us? I mean we are trying to and they don’t listen. We don’t even get appointments. Now, suddenly someone else says it and it opens up the conversation of our problems that we have.”

I ask him if white South African farmers are being used to push an agenda.

“Most probably, yes.

“I think President Trump has things he is not happy about – the expropriation law, targeting, things like that – but I don’t think that is his biggest problem. I think his biggest problem is our government’s friendliness with their enemies.

“He is more worried about our ties to Hamas, Iran and China.”

Pope Francis is to be released from hospital tomorrow after receiving treatment for double pneumonia, but doctors insist he will also need at least two months of rest.

The 88-year-old pontiff has been at Gemelli Hospital in Rome for more than five weeks since being admitted for a severe respiratory infection on 14 February.

Dr Sergio Alfieri, the head of the team taking care of the Pope, told reporters: “Tomorrow [Sunday] the Holy Father will be discharged, that means he will return to the Santa Marta [his residence within the Vatican]”.

“During his hospitalisation, his clinical conditions presented very critical episodes, during which the Holy Father was in danger of losing his life.”

Dr Alfieri said the pontiff was now in a “stable clinical condition” but he would continue taking medication orally “for quite a long time”.

“It’s very important that he follow a period of convalescence and rest for at least two months,” he added.

The Vatican previously said he would appear from the window of his 10th floor hospital room on Sunday to offer a blessing.

A photo released by the Vatican last week showed the leader of the Catholic church celebrating Sunday mass in a hospital chapel.

The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Francis wanted to come to the hospital window around noon (11am UK time) on Sunday to give a greeting and blessing.

One senior cardinal said on Friday it could take time for the Pope to “relearn to speak” after using oxygen during his hospital stay.

Dr Sergio Alfieri addressed this, during a news conference on Saturday, pointing out that when someone has double pneumonia “the lungs are damaged”.

“They [lungs] have been damaged and breathing muscles have been strained. One of the first things that happens is that our voice diminishes… like when you use your voice too much”. But he insisted that, in time, the voice would return to normal.

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Despite the Pope’s discharge from hospital, there has been no update about his plans to meet the King and Queen.

They are due to make a state visit to the Vatican on 8 April.

But doctors confirmed on Saturday they had prescribed two months of convalescence and had advised him against taking any meetings with large groups or that take special effort.

Doctors at the facility recently said he is no longer in a critical condition – having been diagnosed with a complex bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory tract infection and then double pneumonia.

It marks the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy and the longest he has been out of public view since his election as pontiff in 2013.

Two people have been killed and eight others injured in southern Lebanon following Israeli airstrikes, the Lebanese health ministry was reported as saying.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes against dozens of “terrorist” targets in response to “rocket fire” at Israel from Lebanon on Saturday morning.

It was the heaviest exchange of fire since a US-brokered truce between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah came into effect last November.

The Israeli military said it had intercepted three rockets launched from a Lebanese district about four miles north of the border towards the Israeli town of Metula. It was the second time since December that rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon.

Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack, saying it had “no link” to the launches and that it remained committed to the ceasefire. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The fresh violence has sparked concern about whether the fragile ceasefire could hold.

According to Lebanese state news agency NNA, citing Lebanon’s health ministry, two people were killed and eight wounded by Israeli attacks.

NNA reported a spate of Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages in the country’s war-battered south, including border towns and hilltops around five miles inside Lebanese territory.

The strikes also come a day after Israel said it would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity” until Hamas frees the 59 hostages it holds – 24 of whom are believed alive.

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack.

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict then broke out into a war last September as Israel carried out massive waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders.

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The fighting has killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.

Under the ceasefire reached in November, Israeli forces agreed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January.

The deadline was extended to 18 February by agreement between Lebanon and Israel.

However, since then, Israel has remained in five locations in Lebanon, across from communities in northern Israel, and has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah.

Lebanon has appealed to the UN to pressure Israel to fully withdraw from the country.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has asked the Lebanese military to take all necessary measures in the south, but in a statement said the country did not want to return to war.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it was alarmed at the possible escalation of violence and urged all parties to avoid jeopardising the progress made, saying further escalation could have serious consequences for the region.