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The former boxing world champion Zolani “Last Born” Tete was shot dead outside his home in South Africa on Friday amid rampant violence in the country, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates.
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.
Police said the motive remains unclear, but that they have started investigations, asking the public for assistance.
The killing of the boxer brought renewed attention to South Africa’s widespread violent crime. The country has recently had a decline in homicides, but remains one of the world’s murder capitals.
An average of 58 people per day were murdered 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.
The boxer’s 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.
Gayton McKenzie, the minister of sports, arts and culture in South Africa, said: “South Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced … There are no words I can offer tonight that will be equal to what [the family] has lost.”
Tete was training to return to the ring, according to McKenzie, who said the boxer believed “he still had something to give his country.”
The world boxing council published a tribute of Tete, offering their “deepest condolences” to his family and praising his “remarkable career.”
