Four suspects arrested in connection with the murder of two-weight champion.
For a time, Zolani Tete was a force in the lower weights of boxing. Following an unsuccessful challenge for the IBF flyweight title against Moruti Mthalane in 2010, the South African would fight his way back into contention, venturing to Japan in 2014 to defeat Teiru Kinoshita and become the IBF super-flyweight champion.
Tete would then make himself known to followers of the sport in the United Kingdom when he made the first (and only) defence of this strap in a stoppage of bantamweight titlist Paul Butler.
That took place in 2015, and it was the first of a number of U.K. appearances Tete would make in the ring. It was in the U.K., in fact, where Tete would make the first defence of his WBO bantamweight title in an 11-second win over Siboniso Gonya, the fastest knockout in world title fight history.
Throughout his career, he would also face Omar Narvaez and John Riel Casimero, as well as making an appearance in the bantamweight edition of the 2018 World Boxing Super Series.
Tete’s last fight would come in 2022, a knockout of Jason Cunningham that was later changed to a no-contest after Tete failed a drug test.
Very tragically, last Friday, Zolani Tete was shot dead aged 38 outside his home in Mdantsane, South Africa, in an ambush carried out by two men in balaclavas.
Since then, four men have been arrested in connection to the murder, one of whom is a 22-year-old who was scheduled to appear in court today on charges of murder and attempted murder.
The rest of the suspects are due to make an appearance in court tomorrow, two of them having been charged with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
Whether they will also be facing murder charges is currently unclear.
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