{"id":867331,"date":"2026-08-22T11:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867331\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T11:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:36:14","slug":"former-world-boxing-champion-38-shot-dead-outside-home-in-south-africa-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867331\/","title":{"rendered":"Former world boxing champion, 38, shot dead outside home in South Africa | South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former boxing world champion Zolani \u201cLast Born\u201d Tete was shot dead outside his home in South Africa<\/a> on Friday amid rampant violence in the country, which has one of the world\u2019s highest murder rates.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old athlete was arriving at his house in the Mdantsane township, Eastern Cape province, when two men in balaclavas got out of a car and shot him. He was declared dead at the scene. A 27-year-old woman with Tete was also shot multiple times and taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

Police said the motive remains unclear, but that they have started investigations, asking the public for assistance.<\/p>\n

The killing of the boxer brought renewed attention to South Africa\u2019s widespread violent crime. The country has recently had a decline in homicides, but remains one of the world\u2019s murder capitals.<\/p>\n

A forensic pathologist outside the home of Zolani Tete after the fatal shooting in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape province. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n

An average of 58 people per day were murdered<\/a> in South Africa in the first four months of 2026, according to government data. The UK recorded an average of 1.5 murders per day in 2025.<\/p>\n

The boxer\u2019s death led to an outpouring of grief and tributes. Tete fought in 34 matches over the course of his career. He was a two-time title winner, winning the IBF junior-bantamweight title in 2014, and the bantamweight title in 2017. He also held the Guinness world record for the fastest knockout in a title fight.<\/p>\n

Gayton McKenzie, the minister of sports, arts and culture in South Africa, said: \u201cSouth Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced \u2026 There are no words I can offer tonight that will be equal to what [the family] has lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tete was training to return to the ring, according to McKenzie, who said the boxer believed \u201che still had something to give his country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world boxing council published a tribute of Tete, offering their \u201cdeepest condolences\u201d to his family and praising his \u201cremarkable career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former boxing world champion Zolani \u201cLast Born\u201d Tete was shot dead outside his home in South Africa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-867331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}