Tens of thousands of jobs on South Africa’s citrus farms at risk if US imposes tariffs
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.
Citrusdal, in the Cederberg region, is approximately 155 miles (250km) north of Cape Town
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.
Farmer Gerrit van der Merwe worries about how Donald Trump’s tariffs could impact exports
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.
South Africa’s president has signed a law allowing land seizures by the state, which Trump has called egregious and hateful
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.
The racialised legacy of land ownership has been entrenched by Apartheid rule
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.
Wannie Scribante who owns a small private farm feels threatened by squatters and the risk of land expropriation
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.
Wannie Scribante believes the South African government is not listening to their concerns about land expropriation
“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.”
World
At least 100 people killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza – ‘complete families wiped out’ says health ministry
At least 100 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight and into Sunday, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Local medics also report that women and children were among the dead – as Israel launches an escalation of its war in Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas.
“Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment,” Khalil Al-Deqran, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told the Reuters news agency.
Nasser hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, said it received the bodies of 20 people killed in strikes that hit houses and tents in the Muwasi area. Hamas described that as a “new brutal crime”.
Smoking debris after an airstrike at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Saleh Zenati carries the body of his nephew killed in Khan Younis on Sunday. Pic: AP
In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed in two separate strikes, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al Balah.
Meanwhile, first responders from the health ministry and the civil defence reported at least 36 people were killed in multiple strikes in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the latest strikes.
Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March. It is attempting to pressurise Hamas into freeing Israeli hostages and has approved plans that could involve seizing the whole of Gaza and controlling aid.
It comes as peace talks between Israel and Hamas take place in Qatar this weekend, although sources told Reuters there had been no breakthrough.
Sky News Arabia reported that Hamas had proposed freeing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the talks said: “Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel’s commitment to end the war.”
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On Saturday, Israel ramped up attacks on Gaza
Earlier on Sunday, Gaza’s health ministry issued a statement accusing Israel of “intensifying its systematic campaign to target hospitals”.
“After putting the European Gaza Hospital out of service a few days ago, the Israeli occupation has intensified its targeting and siege of the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip since dawn today,” it added.
Israel has previously denied deliberately targeting civilians and accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes.
This week, Israel said it had bombed the European Hospital because it was home to an underground Hamas base, but Sky News analysis has cast doubt on its evidence.
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Mass protests on Saturday mark 77 years since the Nakba
Separately, the Israeli military said on Sunday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they had targeted Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv with two ballistic missiles.
The Houthis have fired at Israel because of the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, while Israel has carried out airstrikes in response, including one on 6 May that damaged Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa and killed several people.
The conflict began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has seen the deaths of more than 53,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
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Donald Trump has said he will speak to Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately on Monday in a bid to secure a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The US president made the announcement on Truth Social – shortly after the Ukrainian president condemned Russia for the “deliberate killing of civilians” after a drone hit a bus in north-eastern Ukraine.
Mr Trump said he will speak to Mr Putin over the phone. He will then talk with Mr Zelenskyy and “various members of NATO”, he wrote.
In an all-caps post, he said: “HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END. GOD BLESS US ALL!!!”
The Ukrainian town of Bilopillia today declared a period of mourning lasting until Monday after nine people were killed in a Russian drone attack – which occurred just hours after Kyiv and Moscow held peace talks.
Seven others were injured, Ukrainian authorities said. The bus was evacuating civilians from a frontline area when the drone hit, the country’s national police said.
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Nine killed in Russian strike on bus
A “father, mother and daughter” were among the dead, Mr Zelenskyy said, writing on Telegram: “All the deceased were civilians. And the Russians could not have failed to understand what kind of vehicle they were targeting.”
The attack has also been condemned by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who said he was “appalled”.
“If Putin is serious about peace, Russia must agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, as Ukraine has done,” he wrote on X.
Representatives for Kyiv and Moscow met for direct peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, just hours before the drone attack.
While the discussions – which were not attended by the Mr Putin or Mr Zelenskyy – did not result in a truce, both countries agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners in their biggest swap yet.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said on national television the exchange could happen as early as next week.
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What happened at Ukraine talks?
Russia ‘threatened eternal war’ at peace talks
After a Ukrainian official yesterday said Russia made “unacceptable” demands during the discussions, a source from the Kyiv delegation has now told Sky News that Moscow threatened “eternal war”.
Separately, a senior Kyiv official said Russia’s proposed ceasefire terms included the full withdrawal of troops from four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk.
Moscow also called for international recognition that those regions and Crimea – annexed in 2014 – are Russian and for Ukraine to become a neutral state, with no allied troops stationed there, they said.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter.
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Ukraine has rallied support from its allies following the talks, and a number have spoken out.
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Today, what do we have? Nothing. And so I tell you, faced with President Putin’s cynicism, I am sure that President Trump, mindful of the credibility of the United States, will react.”
The EU is working on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Israel and Hamas said ceasefire talks have resumed in Qatar – even as Israeli forces ramped up a bombing campaign and mobilised for a massive new ground assault.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it had been “conducting extensive strikes and mobilising troops” as part of preparations to expand operations in Gaza.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas had “refused to discuss negotiations without a cessation of the war”, but after the airstrikes and the mobilisation of forces the militant group’s representatives “have agreed to sit in a room and seriously discuss the deal”.
“Israel emphasises that if the talks do not progress, the [military] operation will continue,” he added.
A Hamas source told Sky News that ceasefire talks began in Doha on Saturday morning.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia. Pic: Reuters
Tents were targeted in an airstrike on Saturday at al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza. Pic: AP
Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters news agency that the two sides were involved in discussions without “pre-conditions”.
He added Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success.
More than 150 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
This week has been one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March and marked a significant escalation in Israel’s offensive.
The Israeli military’s preparations to expand operations in Gaza have included the build-up of tanks and troops along the border.
It is part of “Operation Gideon Chariot”, which Israel says is aimed at defeating Hamas and getting its hostages back.
Israeli tanks near the Israel-Gaza border on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
An Israeli tank being relocated to a position near the Gaza border on Friday. Pic: AP
An Israeli defence official said earlier this month that the operation would not be launched before Donald Trump concluded his visit to the Middle East.
The US president ended his trip on Friday, with no apparent progress towards a new peace deal.
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Forensic look at Israel’s escalation
Meanwhile, on Saturday, leaders at the annual summit of the Arab League in Baghdad said they were trying to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
They also promised to contribute to the reconstruction of the territory once the war stops.
The meeting comes two months after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group.
A man carrying the body of a child killed in Israeli airstrikes on Friday in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Parts of northern Gaza have been completely destroyed in the bombing campaign. Pic: Reuters
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 5 May that Israel was planning an expanded, intensive offensive against Hamas as his security cabinet approved plans that could involve seizing Gaza and controlling aid.
This week, Israel said it had bombed the European Hospital because it was home to an underground Hamas base, but Sky News analysis has cast doubt on its evidence.
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Israel’s goal is the elimination of Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.
Its military response has killed more than 53,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
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