4 arrested after world champion boxer shot dead in South Africa

South African police said Monday they 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 the hospital, police said.

The South African Department of Sport confirmed Tete’s death Friday night.

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 started his professional career 13-0 before receiving his first shot at world championship gold, according to CBS Sports. Tete lost that first championship opportunity when he was stopped by fellow South African Moruti Mthalane in their IBF flyweight title bout. Shortly after the loss, a 12-fight winning streak launched him into the ranks of boxing’s best and most exciting fighters.

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 knock out his opponent, Siboniso Gonya, with his first punch to retain his WBO bantamweight crown. It was the fastest knockout victory in a world championship bout.

In 2023, the U.K. 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,” McKenzie said. “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.”