Zolani Tete, the former two-division world champion from Mdantsane, was shot and killed outside his home on Friday. He was 38.
The shooting left a 27-year-old woman hospitalized after she was also hit by gunfire when two masked gunmen opened fire as the pair waited in a car for the gate to open. The South African Police Service is investigating the death, and Gayton McKenzie said South Africa has lost a fighter whose name will not be treated lightly.
Tete’s death lands hard because he was not a retired name fading into the background. He had been training to return to the boxing ring, a comeback path that had gathered urgency after a career that moved from elite triumph to personal setback. McKenzie said he still believed he had something to give to the sport, and that he and everyone around him had been robbed of that chance.
That career was built on moments that still stand out in boxing history. Tete won his first world title in 2014, taking the IBF junior-bantamweight belt in Kobe, Japan, then defended it with a technical knockout of Paul Butler on British soil a year later. He moved up to bantamweight in 2017, beat Arthur Villanueva for the WBO interim title, and later became full champion, defending that belt three times between 2017 and 2019.
He also held the Guinness World Record for the fastest knockout in a world title fight after stopping Siboniso Gonya in 11 seconds in 2017. John Riel Casimero took the WBO bantamweight title from Tete in November 2018, and Tete finished with a 29-4 record with one no-contest.
But the final chapter of his career was complicated. After knocking out Jason Cunningham in July 2022, he tested positive for stanozolol and received a four-year ban from the UK Anti-Doping Agency, with that win changed to a no-contest. His suspension ended in July 2026, and he was preparing to try again when he was shot outside his home.
The unanswered question is the one that now matters most: who pulled the trigger, and why. McKenzie said somebody in that community knows who did this, but no suspect or motive has been identified. World Boxing posted a tribute after the shooting, and for South African boxing the loss is immediate, violent and unfinished.
