SOUTH AFRICA hit back at Donald Trump today after the US president said the nation would not be invited to the G20 next year over claims of persecution of Afrikaners.

Mr Trump said he is barring South Africa from the 2026 summit at his Miami club and will “stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”

He justified the move by claiming white Afrikaners were being violently persecuted, a claim South Africa has rejected as baseless.

South Africa said it considered the US decision to appoint a local embassy official for the G20 handover an insult.

A statement from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said he “noted the regrettable statement by President Donald Trump,” and pushed back against “misinformation and distortions about our country.”

This year’s summit in Johannesburg, the first held in Africa, was boycotted by the United States.

The meeting’s declaration, giving more attention to issues affecting developing countries, went unsigned by Washington.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed that white Afrikaner farmers are being killed and having their land seized.

The South African government and others, including some Afrikaners, say these claims are false.

South Africa has been a target for Mr Trump since he returned to office, with his administration casting the country as anti-American over its ties with China, Russia and Iran.

Last month, the Trump administration announced it would restrict US refugee admissions to 7,500 annually, with most spots reserved for white South Africans.

In May, the administration welcomed a group of 59 white South Africans as refugees.

Afrikaners, descended mainly from Dutch colonial settlers, were at the heart of the apartheid of white minority rule, though some fought against the system.

There are an estimated 2.7 million Afrikaners in South Africa’s population of 62 million.