Two-time world boxing champion Zolani Tete has been shot dead outside his home in Mdantsane in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
The 38-year-old was reportedly ambushed on Friday while sitting in his car waiting for the gate to his home to open.
According to officials, two armed suspects wearing balaclavas emerged from another vehicle and fired multiple shots at Tete and a 27-year-old female passenger who was in the car with him. The woman survived the attack and remains in hospital.
The suspects fled the scene, prompting a major police investigation into the killing.
South Africa’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, paid tribute to the former champion.
“South Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced,” he said.
Tete held the IBF super-flyweight title in 2014 and later won the WBO bantamweight championship, which he held from 2017 to 2019.
He became a global boxing figure after recording a Guinness World Record for the fastest knockout in a title fight. He stopped Siboniso Gonya in just 11 seconds in 2017.
Tete fought 34 professional bouts, recording 29 victories, four defeats and one no-contest. He fought in the United Kingdom eight times and defeated Liverpool’s Paul Butler in 2015.
His final fight came in July 2022 against Briton Jason Cunningham in London. Although Tete initially won by knockout, the result was later changed to a no-contest after he tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid stanozolol.
He subsequently received a four-year ban from the UK Anti-Doping Agency, which ended on July 29, 2026.
Tete’s manager, Mlandeli Tengimfene, said the boxer had been preparing for a comeback fight scheduled for November 29.
“Zolani is gone at a time we thought he was going to resuscitate his career,” he said.
Tributes have since poured in from the boxing world.
Japanese boxing star Naoya Inoue described Tete as a “wonderful boxer” and offered prayers for his family.
Former WBO bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero, who defeated Tete for the title in November 2019, said he was “shocked” and “heartbroken” by the news.
The World Boxing Organisation (WBO) also mourned the death of its former champion and extended condolences to his family, friends and the South African boxing community.
Police investigations into the shooting are ongoing, with the two suspects still at large.
