Former Champion Boxer Killed for Mobile Phone

South Africa's former world champion boxer Mzukisi Sikali was killed in an armed robbery at the weekend near his home in KwaNobuhle township on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth.

During his career, Sikali, 34, had held the world champion title in three classes: junior flyweight, junior bantamweight and flyweight.

The left-handed boxer was walking with a friend shortly after midnight when they were accosted by two men wielding knives who demanded his mobile phone, according to the South African Press Association. Sikali fought them but he was stabbed several times in the chest. His friend ran away.

"He died at the scene," said police spokesman Marianett Olivier. A 28-year-old suspect was arrested about an hour later and the phone was recovered, according to the police.

"This is one of the heaviest blows," Loyiso Mtya, a spokesman for Boxing South Africa, said of the murder. "We find it hard to accept because Sikali had represented his home town and the rest of South Africa in the world, gaining respect because of his polished boxing skills."

Sikali's last fight was in March when he lost his International Boxing Organisation flyweight title.

"I'm robbed of my boy who knows how to throw clean punches when he enters the ring," said Harold Volbrecht, Sikali's trainer.

Official statistics show that the murder rate in South Africa has declined from 51 per 100,000 people in 2000 to 42.7 per 100,000 in 2004, but this still places it among the top five countries for murder. In comparison, the murder rate in England is 1.6 per 100,000.