South Africa’s former world boxing champion Tete shot dead outside his home

Former world boxing champion Zolani "Last Born" Tete was killed outside his home in South Africa's Eastern Cape province on Friday, according to police and Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie. The 38-year-old was on his way to his residence in Mdantsane township when two armed men, wearing balaclavas, emerged from a vehicle and began shooting. McKenzie declined to speculate on the identity or reason behind the attack.

Tete's murder is expected to draw attention to South Africa's persistent problem of violent crime, which remains among the world's highest despite recent reductions in homicides. The death of a boxing world champion has also resonated in Mdantsane, a township renowned for producing numerous successful South African boxers.

A 27-year-old woman who was with Tete at the time of the shooting was also wounded multiple times and hospitalized. Police have launched an investigation into the incident, and the motive remains unknown. Tete earned the IBF junior-bantamweight title in 2014 after defeating Japan's Teiru Kinoshita in Kobe, and later claimed the WBO bantamweight championship.

He gained international recognition for his 11-second knockout of fellow South African Siboniso Gonya in Belfast in November 2017, the quickest stoppage in a world title bout.