CAPE TOWN, June 13 -- President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked a South African court to freeze the parliamentary inquiry that could lead to his impeachment, a last-ditch legal manoeuvre in the long-running scandal over millions of dollars in cash found stuffed inside a sofa at his game farm.

In an urgent application lodged this week at the Western Cape High Court, Ramaphosa asked judges to stay the impeachment committee's work until a separate review of the case against him has been heard, arguing that letting Parliament proceed in parallel would prejudice that review.

The move is the president's most aggressive attempt yet to slow a process that South Africa's highest court forced back into motion. In May, the Constitutional Court ruled tha...