Port Elizabeth's ‘Sis’ Angie’s heart beats to fight crime in community

In 2010, Miselwa Nqabeni was diagnosed with a heart disease.

Cardiomyopathy is an acquired or hereditary disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, swollen legs and feet and/or a bloated stomach.

Ordinarily it would slow you down, with doctors recommending that you reduce your workload.

But for “Sis” Angie, 50, as she is affectionately known to people in Port Elizabeth’s northern areas, it was not enough to derail her from helping the people of Ward 29.

“I love working for my community,” she said.

“There are a lot of challenges that people face and it’s not easy to turn a blind eye.

“I’ve accepted the chronic illness and take my medication. “I’m feeling OK.

“I’ve got to a point where I’ve told myself that I’m not going to sit around and wait for the day I pass away.”

Six months after she was diagnosed, Nqabeni gave birth to her last-born and four months later she was told her heart would last for only 10 more years.

“My heart is bigger than the normal size and I was told no operation will be done for this condition.

“Through the year I feel energetic, except during winter when I regularly get short of breath and feel tired.

“Even then, I just take my medication and stay positive,” she said.

Nine years later, Nqabeni says she is not ready to die.

She is one of 78 members of the Booysen Park community policing forum, with her disability grant of R1,780 her only income.

The CPF was launched in March to address issues raised by residents about crime and drug abuse.

“At every community meeting, people would come with stories about how they were robbed in the streets and at their homes.

“Eventually, we decided to start this forum with the assistance of the SAPS,” she said.

The CPF is mostly visible at schools in the ward, where members patrol and do regular searches.

Nqabeni said the only challenge about working in the crime-ridden area was that they did not have much training or equipment.

“We have placed six CPF members in schools around Booysen Park – three males and three females,” she said, stressing they were strict on having a gender balance.

“Our main focus in schools, seeing that we are not welltrained or armed, is to be stationed at the toilets,” she said.

“We have found that pupils spend a lot of time in the toilets [getting up to mischief].

“Others will patrol the school ensuring that pupils get to their classrooms at the start of each period.

“Then there is one male and female stationed at the gate, controlling access in and out of the school.”

Nqabeni said some children brought drugs and dangerous weapons to school – and grade 8s were the most problematic.

“They are being recruited into gangs and into selling drugs, and because they are either intimidated or easily influenced, they fall into the trap.

“In May, we did a random search at Booysen Park [school] and confiscated a huge number of knives.

“With others we find a large sum of money, which indicates they are selling [drugs],” she said.

“Recently, we were tipped off by a pupil that ‘if you see a tin of body spray don’t just ignore it’ because they open it and hide drugs inside”.

Nqabeni said she had put in a request with the police for more training for all CPF members, as well as for metal detectors to scan for weapons at the school.

Nqabeni’s work in the community does not end there as she is also the secretary of Sanco in the ward.

Ward 29 consists of 18 areas, with many of the new areas made up of people who were relocated to a new housing development there.

“The reason crime is becoming a bigger problem is because people are hungry,” she said.

“All the children and adults I have talked to, and assisted to find help, say they resort to selling drugs and breaking into homes because they are asked to by their ‘boss’ in exchange for money.

“So I try to help them apply for jobs.

“We have also started a soup kitchen.”

Nqabeni said this was their way of trying to address some of the social ills.

Speaking about what could be done in her community, she said police visibility was vital and if there was a police station in the area it would likely lead to a decrease in crime.

“The municipality also needs to speed up the process of naming our streets, because [around Qunu], when you call an ambulance, you must go stand along the main road and then drive to the house.

“Having a skills development centre would also bring back life in the community.

“Every day I get people asking me about where they can make bricks, weld or sew.”

Some people had accepted there were no jobs and were ready to start their own businesses, but lacked support, she said.