Bosasa Operations, which runs the Lindela repatriation camp on behalf of the Home Affairs Department, has sued an NGO that fights for immigrants' rights in an attempt to gag it.
The International Organisation of Foreigners (Inof) was served with papers on Thursday by lawyers acting on behalf of Lindela.
Part of the letter to Inof, hand-delivered 24 hours before The Star's report on Friday about the mysterious death of a Malawian immigrant and a series of discrepancies in the police investigations, read:
"We are instructed that your organisation has in the past - and in continuing to do so - made groundless and false accusations regarding the conditions and occurrences at the Lindela repatriation centre. This conduct is obviously made with the intention to embarrass our client and to injure their business reputation."
The letter added: "Our client is not prepared to tolerate your unlawful action any longer and... we hereby demand that you refrain from making any false and unsubstantiated statement regarding our client and the operations at the Lindela repatriation centre.
"Should you fail to accede to this demand, you will leave our client with no option but to approach the High Court for appropriate relief, in which case our client will seek a special cost order, not only against your organisation but against the office-bearers thereof personally."
Inof's lawyer, Jose Nascimento, also known as "the McBride lawyer", poured scorn over the legal threats by Couzyns Attorneys, saying: "It is our client's opinion that the rights of persons subject to incarceration in terms of public international law have not been met by the Lindela repatriation centre."
He added: "These infringements contravene the rights of detained persons in custody. In fact it is our client's concern to request the Department of Home Affairs to order a commission of inquiry into the conditions, circumstances and occurrences at Lindela. It goes without saying that our client will not be intimidated by such threats."
As the exchange raged, the South African Human Rights Commission said the only solution was an independent commission of inquiry into Lindela.
HRC deputy chairperson Jody Kollapen said on Sunday night: "Quite clearly, it seems that foreigners don't enjoy full protection of our laws and our constitution. Murders have been committed at Lindela and we, as a nation, have a right to demand that a full and proper investigation be conducted and those responsible feel the full weight of the law."