Welcome to “The Friendly City” where, on exiting the airport, you are met by land strewn with shattered glass, pigs gorging on garbage and buildings so vandalised they are no more than empty shells.

The immediate area surrounding the newly renamed Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport and former industrial park is plagued by vandalism and theft, while the adjacent Airport Valley informal settlement and its borders have become a health and safety hazard...