The meeting hall at Khayelitsha Resource Centre is mostly empty. Plastic chairs are arranged in uneven rows across the room. They face an elevated platform, where seating has been set out for several speakers. It is 7 March 2012. A golden late-summer light shines through the windows and illuminates the dust particles moving slowly through the air. Most attendees are still gathered at the entrance area greeting each other and engaging in polite chatter. But their civil conversations mask more than they disclose. Eyes and smiles are tense. Handshakes are stiff and clasping.

Having opted out of the fraught introductions, I sit down on one of the vacant seats. A few minutes later casually dressed shopkeepers, neighbourhood representatives and civil society members drift into the venue and a hum of chatter reverberates across the room. I notice two Somali representatives across the hall smiling at me and beckoning me to join them. I smile back but shake my head. I am not willing to make myself their visible acquaintance in the tense surroundings.

When the hall is almost full, a tall man dressed in a suit with a priest's collar takes the podium. Reverend Mbekwa's eyes dart pointedly around the audience and the banter quickly subsides. Seated behind him on the platform are two South African and two Somali retailers’ representatives. One of the Somali representatives is wearing a tight-fitting dusty black blazer. In the afternoon heat he is perspiring profusely. Beside the retailers’ representative sits Sibongile Mbotwe, the special adviser to the national minister of police. I do a quick headcount of the attendees. Of the 79 people in the room, 75 are South Africans. Four are Somali. Later on, a group of six Somali shopkeepers discreetly enter the hall and seat themselves towards the back of the venue.

Mbekwa, who has chaired meetings between traders in Khayelitsha for several years, commands the attention of the audience: ‘On 22 May 2008 xenophobic riots took place in Khayelitsha. In November 2008 it was therefore agreed that no new shops would open.’

The room is silent. Attendees are all familiar with the agreement of four years ago that he is referring to.