RIP Bavelile Hlongwa
Champion of youth and women
● Bavelile Hlongwa, who died in a car crash in Limpopo at the age of 38, was recently appointed as deputy minister of mineral resources and energy.
As an executive member of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) and executive vice-chair of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), she had campaigned strongly for more and younger women in government, and against the culture of patriarchy in the ANC.
In January this year she launched a scathing attack on the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) for failing young women on both counts.
Looking ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini and her executive in the eye, Hlongwa berated them for failing to deliver Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as ANC president at the party’s national elective conference, for opting to support David Mabuza as deputy president rather than Lindiwe Sisulu, and for failing to lead the struggle against patriarchy in the party.
She told them they were too old to lead the organisation and should go home to rest.
“Some of you should be resting at home because you are old and your knees cannot carry you no more, but you don’t want to give us space and we are going to confront you.”
She said the ANCWL was “very behind” in the struggle for equal rights and should allow younger women to take the lead.
“If you don’t give us the baton, fighting patriarchy in the ANC will not succeed. You have failed to give young women a chance to learn from you.”
Ironically, she was very close to Dlamini, who was one of her earliest mentors when she became a student activist in 2001. She saw her as a mother. The tongue-lashing she gave her was not personal, she said afterwards; she was representing the view of young women.
She was passionate about highlighting issues of rape and women abuse. When a woman reported that she had been raped or sexually abused, she must be believed and supported, she said, even if the case went against her in court.
However, she remained close to Jacob Zuma after his rape trial. One of the last messages she received before her accident was from the former president.
Hlongwa was born in Umzinto, KwaZuluNatal, on April 14 1981, and matriculated at Sihle High School in 2000.
She graduated with a BSc in chemical engineering and a master’s in public administration. Hlongwa was a leader of student bodies and president of the SRC at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
She joined Shell SA as a chemical engineer and worked as a process technologist, production engineer and gas scheduler until 2017.
She served as a nonexecutive board member at the Dube Trade Port Corporation from 2017 to 2019, a nonexecutive board member at the National Metrology Institute of SA from 2018 to 2019 and treasurer of the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers.
When she left Shell she became executive vice-chair of the NYDA, where the issues closest to her heart were youth employment and the welfare of young women.
She agitated for the scrapping of experience as an entry-level requirement for job seekers and pushed for the young women’s desk at the NYDA.
She made the NYDA take a clear policy stance on gender-based violence and drove the provision of sanitary towels for schoolgirls in rural areas and townships.
Her appointment in May 2019 as one of the youngest members of the cabinet was believed to be a direct result of her and the NYDA’s relentless lobbying.
The cabinet was too old, she said. It was out of touch with the realities facing young people. She raised the issue of more youth and women on the cabinet sharply with President Cyril Ramaphosa whenever she got the opportunity. Her target was 40% youth representation in parliament and the cabinet.
Hlongwa was extraordinarily passionate and energetic. She joked that she had to compensate for being short by being more passionate and energetic than anyone else.
She expected to see the same energy and passion around her. When she was in the national working committee of the ANCYL she found its lethargy frustrating. As far as she was concerned, institutions that were too quiet were a waste of time and space.
She didn’t drink or socialise much, and spoke out strongly against alcohol and substance abuse by young people. Her colleagues thought she was “too serious”.
Her older sister Sphe died when Bavelile was 18, and she became a single mother to her sister’s four children.