Just a modest crowd - mainly elderly South African women - turned up to St Michael's Church in Alexandra township for a special service to mark a year since their country's descent into xenophobic violence.
A new shopping centre was being opened in the area near central Johannesburg. "Perhaps the people preferred to go there," remarked one bystander, trying to explain the poor attendance.
Her remark symbolised what many human rights activists claim has been the "inadequate" response by the authorities to last year's anti-foreigner bloodshed.
Sixty-two people were killed and about 100,000 were displaced.
ANC distracted?
Yet some believe the African National Congress (ANC) government has become distracted by other things.
Ernesto Nhamuave from Mozambique was torched by a marauding mob
In May 2008 international newspapers carried the horrific image of Ernesto Nhamuave - a Mozambican man who was "necklaced" - torched by a marauding mob - simply for being a foreigner.
The 35-year-old father of three later died of his injuries.
It resembled the appalling violence during the struggle against white minority rule.
During last year's xenophobic violence the clashes were between black Africans: locals and those considered outsiders.
South Africa now has a new president, a ruling party which is trying to patch up rifts and factionalism following the ousting of former President Thabo Mbeki, and an ambitious plan to showcase the nation when it hosts the Fifa World Cup in 2010.
Migrants tell of township tensions
Jean Pierre Misago, from the University of Witswatersand, has been studying the violence.
"It might look different - there isn't any fighting, but 60 people died, dozens were raped, yet no one has been charged for murder or rape," he says.
"There's been no government response to make sure that the rights of foreigners are protected."
He is among the many who fear that if not confronted head on, anti-foreigner sentiment could grow like a festering wound.
In Ramaphosa settlement where shacks stand side-by-side with brick buildings and a tarmac road runs through the centre, the anti- foreigner sentiment is still simmering beneath the surface.
Lack of housing is one factors blamed for the bloodshed
"The crime's got better here since the foreigners moved out," said one woman.
"You know what they're like, they also take all the jobs."
She was the neighbour of a former Mozambican hairdresser whose salon I saw being burnt down a year ago.
The shop is now in South African hands. The Mozambican owner has fled.
One of his countrymen, a man named Abdul, explained what it is now like to be a foreigner in South Africa today.
"They beat me last year. Some have told us after [the election of] a new president we're going to start again, so it's better that you run away now before we beat you again," he said.
Almost all the foreigners we spoke to had heard rumours that meetings were planned by disgruntled South African neighbours, keen to get them out.
Uneasy truce
When we approached the "organisers", they refused to be interviewed.
This uneasy truce has left community workers like David trying to hold the peace.
