JOHANNESBURG: South African police said Monday they had arrested four people in connection with the murder of two-time boxing world champion Zolani Tete, who was gunned down last week.
Tete, 38, was attacked on Friday evening as he returned to his home in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape province.
A 27-year-old woman who was with him in the car survived but is in hospital, police said.
The four suspects arrested over the weekend are aged between 22 and 28, police said in a statement. One has been formally charged with murder.
Tete won the IBF junior-bantamweight world title in 2014 and the WBO bantamweight world title in 2017.
In 2017, he entered boxing history when he took just 11 seconds to flatten his opponent with his first punch to retain his WBO bantamweight crown.
It was the fastest knockout victory in a world championship bout.
In 2023, the UK Anti-Doping Agency hit Tete with a four-year ban that ended on July 29 and he was preparing to return to professional boxing.
“South Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced,” Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said in a statement.
“He was training for a return to the ring. He believed he still had something to give this country. He was right, but he will not get the chance now. He, and all of us, have been robbed.”
Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2026
