Former two-time world champion boxer Zolani Tete has been shot dead outside his home in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape, South Africa, at the age of 38.
Tete, known as “Last Born”, was reportedly ambushed on Friday while waiting for the gate of his residence to open. South African police said two armed men wearing balaclavas emerged from a vehicle and opened fire.
A 27-year-old woman who was travelling with Tete was also shot multiple times and taken to hospital.
South Africa’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, confirmed Tete’s death and said police had launched an investigation. The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
“I will not speculate about who did this or why,” McKenzie said.
He later paid tribute to the boxer, saying: “South Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced.”
The suspects fled the scene following the shooting, with police continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack.
Tete’s decorated boxing career
Tete was one of South Africa’s most accomplished boxers, winning world titles at both junior-bantamweight and bantamweight.
He captured the IBF super-flyweight title in 2014 after defeating Japan’s Teiru Kinoshita in Kobe before winning the WBO bantamweight crown in 2017.
He became a global boxing figure later that year after producing one of the fastest knockouts in world championship history.
Tete stopped fellow South African Siboniso Gonya in just 11 seconds in Belfast in November 2017 while defending his WBO bantamweight title. The knockout earned him a Guinness World Record for the fastest stoppage in a world title fight.
He also built…
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