Former president Jacob Zuma has paid tribute to the late deputy minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Bavelile Hlongwa at her memorial service in Durban.

Zuma praised Hlongwa for being brave. ANC NEC members including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Faith Muthambi, ANC Chief Whip in the National Assembly, Pemmy Majodina and Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi joined hundreds of party members that attended the memorial service on Thursday.

Zuma says he last saw Hlongwa in Limpopo last Friday.

The funeral service of the Deputy Minister will be held in Durban on Saturday and she will be accorded an official Category 2 funeral.

Hlongwa died in a road accident on the N1 at Maubane Bridge, in Hammanskraal last Friday night.

Hlongwa, Katlego Kekana and Sipho Malaka died on scene after a truck ran over them while they were assisting another driver whose vehicle had overturned at the Maubane bridge near Carousel, in Hammanskraal, North of Pretoria.

The 38-year-old Hlongwa was born on the 4th of April in 1981 in uMzinto on KwaZulu Natal south coast.

In the early 2000s, she enrolled for a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

It was then that she became an active member of the  African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).