Zwelinzima Vavi
@Zwelinzima1 • 609,382 subscribers
There can be no greater honour than to serve the working class. If you can't handle the truth don't follow me. Retweeting is not an endorsement
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My sincere apologies in advance to Tsonga/Shangaan-speaking workers whose nationality is being abused in the video. This moment reinforces the need to strengthen our resolve and uphold our principles against mob justice, street justice, regionalism, and xenophobia
Zwelinzima Vavi279,019 views • 5 months ago
REST IN PEACE, CHAMPION ZOLANI “LAST BORN” TETE This photograph and the videos I took take me back to 6 June 2016 at East London Airport. I happened to be at the airport when Zolani Tete arrived home from Liverpool, where, just two days earlier, he had defeated Mexico’s Victor Ruiz by a seventh-round TKO, successfully defending his IBF International bantamweight title. What has remained etched in my memory was not only the jubilant reception for a returning champion, but the deeply emotional moment when Zolani was reunited with his wheelchair-bound mother. Here was a son of Mdantsane who had conquered the boxing world, returning home with his championship belts and sharing that achievement with the mother who had witnessed the difficult journey from the beginning. Today, looking at this photograph is unbearably painful. Last night, 21 August 2026, Zolani “Last Born” Tete, only 38 years old, was brutally gunned down outside his home in Mdantsane. Reports indicate that he had arrived home and was waiting for his gate to open when armed assailants attacked him. What a cruel contradiction: a young man who survived countless rounds against some of the world’s finest boxers, who carried the hopes of Mdantsane and South Africa into boxing arenas across the world, was murdered while simply waiting to enter his own home. Zolani was no ordinary boxer. He rose from Mdantsane, one of the great nurseries of South African boxing, to become a two-weight world champion, holding the IBF junior-bantamweight world title and later the WBO bantamweight world title. He also entered boxing history with his extraordinary 11-second knockout of Siboniso Gonya, recognised as the fastest knockout in a world-title fight. His death is not only a devastating loss to his family and the boxing fraternity. It is another painful reminder of the violent crime that continues to rob our communities of lives, dreams and extraordinary talent. On behalf of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), we extend our profound and heartfelt condolences to Zolani’s family, his friends, his trainers and colleagues, the people of Mdantsane, the entire South African boxing fraternity and boxing fans across the world. We also wish the woman who was wounded in this horrific attack a full recovery. Police have opened a murder and attempted-murder investigation. I will remember that scene at East London Airport - the belts, the celebrations, the enormous smile of a champion who had returned home, and above all, that precious moment with his mother. Rest in peace, Zolani “Last Born” Tete. You made Mdantsane proud. You made the Eastern Cape proud. You made South Africa proud. Lala ngoxolo, Champion!
Zwelinzima Vavi22,934 views • 11 days ago
Nelson Mandela, one of the few not afraid to speak out against US imperialism
Zwelinzima Vavi391,558 views • 8 months ago
Look carefully at these pictures. On 30 June there will be no march to the mansions. There will be no march to the luxury estates. There will be no march to the golf courses. There will be no march to the beachfront suburbs. Migrants — documented or undocumented — living in those wealthy suburbs have nothing to fear. Nobody will be knocking on their gates. Nobody will be dragging them from their homes. Nobody will be demanding to see their papers. The rich will sleep peacefully on 29 June. They will sleep peacefully on 30 June. And they will wake up on 1 July exactly as they did before. But in the townships and informal settlements there will be fear. The targets will not be the rich. The targets will be the poorest of the poor. The migrant living in a shack. The refugee running a spaza shop. The domestic worker. The gardener. The security guard. The construction worker. The unemployed young person trying to survive. And when it is all over: No jobs will have been created. No factory will have reopened. No mine will have reopened. No pothole will have been repaired. No school still using pit toilets will have been fixed. No hospital will have been repaired. No clinic will have received more nurses. No municipality will suddenly work. No family will escape poverty. No inequality will disappear. The rich will remain rich. The poor will remain poor. And once again, the victims will be people living in shacks while those living behind high walls, electric fences and private security watch from a safe distance. The anger is real. The unemployment is real. The poverty is real. The inequality is real. But the targets are wrong. The poor are being mobilised against the poor while the real causes of the crisis remain untouched.
Zwelinzima Vavi111,262 views • 2 months ago
The stench from Pretoria is unbearable! The Madlanga Commission has ripped open the rot at the heart of our justice system — and the whole country is choking. Yes, the accused still have the right to defend themselves, but goodness, what we’ve heard already is enough to make a nation sick. This is not just scandal — it’s a full-blown crisis of integrity. South Africa cannot cope with this level of betrayal! Kubi!!
Zwelinzima Vavi217,221 views • 11 months ago