The Western Cape High Court has granted President Cyril Ramaphosa’s urgent application to temporarily halt Parliament’s impeachment committee from continuing its inquiry into the Phala Phala matter, pending the outcome of his review application.

Judge André Le Grange delivered three judgments on Friday morning. One found that the President had not made out a case for an interim interdict. However, the second judgment found that he had met the requirements for interim relief and proposed a limited interdict, while the third judgment concurred with that finding.

By majority, the court ordered that the impeachment committee is interdicted from proceeding with its hearings pending the outcome of the review application. The question of legal costs has been postponed and will be decided by the court hearing the review.

Ramaphosa argued that allowing the committee to proceed before the courts had determined the validity of the Section 89 independent panel’s report would cause him irreparable prejudice.

The impeachment process was revived after the Constitutional Court ruled in May that the National Assembly had acted unlawfully when it rejected the Section 89 panel’s report, which found there was sufficient evidence for Parliament to consider whether the President had committed a serious violation of the Constitution or the law in relation to the 2020 Phala Phala farm robbery.

The main review application, which is yet to be heard, seeks to have the Section 89 panel’s report reviewed and set aside. If Ramaphosa ultimately succeeds in that application, the report would fall away, leaving Parliament without the legal basis required under its rules to continue with the impeachment process.

While the interdict pauses the committee’s substantive work, legal experts say preliminary administrative steps, such as appointing an evidence leader, may still proceed.