{"id":864292,"date":"2026-08-22T11:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864292\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T11:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:12:14","slug":"south-africas-former-world-boxing-champion-zolani-tete-shot-dead-outside-his-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864292\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s former world boxing champion Zolani Tete shot dead outside his home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former world boxing champion Zolani “Last Born” Tete has been shot dead outside his home in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, police and the country’s sports minister said.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old was arriving at his residence in Mdantsane township when two armed men wearing balaclavas got out of a vehicle and opened fire.<\/p>\n

“I will not speculate about who did this or why,” Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Tete’s killing will renew attention on violent crime in South Africa, which continues to have one of the world’s highest murder rates despite recent declines in homicides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The killing was condemned by Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabunyane. (Reuters)<\/p>\n

The murder of the world champion has also struck a chord in Mdantsane, the Eastern Cape township that has produced some of South Africa’s most successful boxers.<\/p>\n

SABC, the South African public broadcaster, reported that Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane expressed shock and sadness at Tete’s killing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the premier said: “It is heartbreaking that a life that brought so much pride to our province has been ended through such a brutal act of violence,” according to SABC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We call on law enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned to establish what happened and bring those responsible to book. Anyone with information must assist the police.<\/p>\n

“On behalf of Premier Mabuyane and the EC provincial government, we extend our deepest condolences to the Tete family, his friends, the boxing fraternity and the community of Mdantsane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman travelling with Zolani Tete was also shot during the attack. (Reuters)<\/p>\n

A 27-year-old woman travelling with Tete was shot multiple times and taken to hospital. Police have started investigations and the motive remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Tete won the IBF junior bantamweight world title in 2014 after defeating Japan’s Teiru Kinoshita in Kobe. He later won the WBO bantamweight crown.<\/p>\n

He tested positive for the steroid stanozolol after a fight against British boxer Jason Cunningham in 2022 and was given a four-year suspension from competing, which expired in July this year.<\/p>\n

He is best remembered internationally for his 11-second knockout of fellow South African Siboniso Gonya in Belfast in November 2017, the fastest stoppage in a world title fight.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former world boxing champion Zolani “Last Born” Tete has been shot dead outside his home in South Africa’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1183,85,408840],"class_list":["post-864292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-zolani-tete"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}