Former world boxing champion Zolani “Last Born” Tete has been shot dead outside his home in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, police and the country’s sports minister said.
The 38-year-old boxer was arriving at his residence in Mdantsane township on Friday when two armed men wearing balaclavas emerged from a vehicle and opened fire.
A 27-year-old woman who was travelling with Tete was also shot several times and taken to hospital for treatment.
Police have launched an investigation into the attack, but authorities have not established a motive.
South African Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said officials would not speculate about who was responsible or what may have prompted the killing.
Tete’s death has shocked South Africa’s boxing community, particularly in Mdantsane, an Eastern Cape township renowned for producing some of the country’s most successful fighters.
The killing is also likely to renew concerns about violent crime in South Africa, which continues to record one of the world’s highest murder rates despite a recent decline in homicide figures.
Tete became IBF junior-bantamweight world champion in 2014 after defeating Japan’s Teiru Kinoshita in Kobe. He later captured the WBO bantamweight title.
Internationally, he was perhaps best known for his extraordinary 11-second knockout of fellow South African Siboniso Gonya in Belfast in November 2017.
The victory remains the fastest stoppage recorded in a world title boxing fight.