Born: 14 April 1981,
Died: 13 September 2019
Country most active: South Africa
Also known as: NA
The following was written by Nina Baker and is excerpted from the book From Alchemy to Transport Phenomena: A Global History of Women in Chemical Engineering.
Bavelile Gloria Hlongwa (1981-2019) was a South African chemical engineer and politician from KwaZulu-Natal. At the University of KwaZulu-Natal she both gained a BSc in chemical engineering and became a party member of the African National Congress(ANC). Her career in chemical engineering was predominantly in petrochemicals, initially with Shell Downstream SA (2011-13), then as a production engineer (2013-15) and gas scheduler (2016-17) at South Africa’s largest oil refinery, Sapref. Her involvement in student politics led to her election to the National Assembly of South Africa (May 2019) and the position as Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa. However, soon afterwards she was killed in a car crash at the age of only 28.