The champion-churning entity was temporarily closed to honour Tete, who was gunned down at his NU17 Mdantsane home in August, robbing it of its most loyal member.
The club, based in NU1 Mdantsane, was opened in 2013 after its manager Mlandlei Tengimfene teamed up with Tete following his return to the province from Johannesburg, where he was training under the late Nic Durandt.
Though Tete was its flagship, the club produced a slew of talent, including SA champions in Zolani’s brother Makazole (SA flyweight), Siyakholwa Kuse (SA mini-flyweight) and his successor Mthokozisi Ngxaka.
Tete was not only a member of the club but partially owned it as he made his name under it, winning the IBF junior-bantamweight and WBO bantamweight titles while assisting with training duties.
Tengimfene confirmed that some went to train at Zolile “Gqo” Mahamba while the gym was taken over by Lunga Sikonyela to train his own fighters.
“I must commend the Daily Dispatch story about the closure of All Winners because after that the boxers saw it and bombarded me with pleas to reopen it,” he said.
“They felt it would be a disservice to the memory of Zolani to close the club and undertook to clean it up and install equipment for its reopening.”
While the club has been robbed of a physical trainer by Tete’s death, Tengimfene said rising trainer Lonki Witbooi would take over training sessions and include his boxers under one roof.
“Lonki has initially started assessing the set-up and will begin the sessions in earnest on Monday as we return everything to normality.”
Tengimfene said as the club’s operations returned to normality, discussions would shift to renaming it in Tete’s honour.
No name has been decided as yet, though Last Born Boxing Club, in reference to Tete’s ring name, is favoured.
This would be in line with the promotion arm, which is named Last Born Promotions, though there are also suggestions of naming it the Zolani Tete Boxing Club.
Tengimfene said there were legalities to contend with before taking the final decision.
“But we will sort this out to ensure Zolani’s legacy lives on forever.
“We have emphasised that his untimely death should not be marked by gloom but yield positives he would have loved to be preserved.”
