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WORLD CHAMP GUNNED DOWN AT HIS OWN GATE: Four Arrested in Ambush Killing of Boxing Legend Zolani Tete
Two-weight world champion and record-holder for boxing's fastest-ever title-fight knockout was shot dead outside his home as he waited for his gate to open — police say four suspects, all in their 20s, are now in custody.
Zolani Tete had just beaten a four-year doping ban and was plotting a comeback at 38. Instead, he never made it through his own front gate.
The former two-weight world champion was ambushed by two gunmen in balaclavas on Friday evening as his car idled outside his home in Mdantsane, a township near East London in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, according to Al Jazeera's reporting on the case. A 27-year-old woman riding with him was shot multiple times and remains hospitalized; her condition has not been made public. Tete died at the scene.
By Monday, South African police confirmed four suspects — all men between 22 and 28 — had been arrested over the weekend. A 22-year-old picked up Saturday was due in court Monday facing charges of murder and attempted murder, while two others face charges of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, CBS News reported. Police have not disclosed a motive, and the investigation is ongoing.
A record nobody may ever beat
Tete's boxing résumé reads like a highlight reel: IBF junior-bantamweight champion in 2014, then WBO bantamweight champion from 2017 to 2019. He still holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest knockout in a world title fight — flattening Siboniso Gonya in just 11 seconds in a 2017 title defense, a feat Sky Sports called one of the sport's most stunning moments. His four-year suspension from UK Anti-Doping had only just lapsed, on July 29, and he was reportedly training for a return to the ring.
"South Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced."
The tribute came from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who noted Tete had been actively preparing his comeback when he was killed. The line has been echoed across South African media as tributes pour in from the boxing world, where Tete was regarded as one of the country's most gifted — and most punished by injury and misfortune — champions of his generation.
Police in Buffalo City, the metro that includes Mdantsane, say the murder and attempted-murder case against the 22-year-old suspect moves forward this week, with the other three suspects expected to face separate weapons charges in the coming days. No court date has yet been set for a full trial, and investigators have given no indication of whether robbery, personal dispute, or something else drove the ambush.