Bavelile Gloria Hlongwa was born 4 April 1981 in the town of
Umzinto in the previous
Natal Province. She began her schooling career at Ncazuka Primary School in 1989 and matriculated from Sihle High School in 2000. She studied at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal Howard College campus and achieved a Bachelor of Science degree in
chemical engineering. While at university, Hlongwa became active in the
ANC Youth League and other student organisations. She was pursuing a master's degree in
public administration at the time of her death. Hlongwa has held various leadership positions. She was appointed to serve on the Local Community Development Committee in 1999. Hlongwa was elected to the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2011, and, in 2013, she was designated as treasurer for the structure. She was appointed executive deputy chairperson of the board of the National Youth Development Agency in 2017. Hlongwa started her career as a chemical engineer at Shell Downstream SA. She worked as an engineer from 2011 to 2013, and soon as a production engineer from 2013 to 2015 at Sapref. She was also a gas scheduler at the company from 2016 to 2017. Hlongwa was appointed as the executive deputy chairperson of the board of the National Youth Development Agency in 2017, while she was deputy president of Convocation Executive Committee at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal. From 2017 to 2019, she served as a non-executive board member of the Dube Trade Port Corporation. Hlongwa was a non-executive board member of the National Metrology Institute of South Africa from 2018 until 2019. ==Political career==