South Africa captain Senzo Meyiwa has died after being shot on Sunday following a dispute with two men, South African police said.

A police statement said the Orlando Pirates goalkeeper was shot after two men entered a house in Vosloorus, a township near Johannesburg where he was visiting, at about 8pm local time, while another man remained outside.

All three fled after Meyiwa was shot but other people in the house at the time were unharmed.

Local media said it was an attempted burglary but this was not confirmed by police.

"We can confirm that Bucs (Pirates) keeper Senzo Meyiwa has been shot and sadly declared dead on arrival at hospital," said the South African Police Services official Twitter feed.

"We must emphasize break of protocol... We know there are upset and hurt pple (people) at the house where (the) incident occurred and at hospital. Calm please," it later added.

"We can assure all South Africans that we will do all we can to bring Meyiwa's killers to book," the police said in a further tweet.

The 27-year-old Meyiwa captained South Africa in their last four matches in the African Nations Cup qualifiers.

He played on Saturday when his club advanced to the semi-finals of the South African League Cup.

Meyiwa's death follows that of another prominent South African sportsman, former world 800 metres champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, who died in a car accident on Friday.

Violent gun crime in South Africa has been highlighted by the trial of Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius, who was found guilty of shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

More than 17,000 people were murdered in South Africa between April 2013 and March 2014, an increase of about 800 over the previous year, according to police figures.