Acting Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant General Arno Lamoer has been appointed permanently in the position, national police chief Bheki Cele says

“Lieutenant General Arno Lamoer has been appointed as the Provincial Commissioner of the Western Cape with immediate effect,”  Cele’s office said in a statement.

Lamoer has been acting in the position since his predecessor Mzwandile Petros moved to Gauteng.

Cele said he announced Lamoer’s permanent appointment “with pleasure” and that he had extensive police experience.

The 50-year-old joined the SA Police Service (SAPS) 30 years ago, after a two-year stint as a teacher.

During his basic training, he received an award for being the best student.

He started his career as a trainer and lecturer at the SAPS Bishop Lavis Training College where he worked from 1980 to 1986, moving up to the rank of lieutenant.

Lamoer then became station commander of Atlantis in the Western Cape and was transferred to Manenberg police station in 1990, where  he worked as station commander until 1994.

“He was later transferred to the then Athlone District Commandant’s office where he served as Area Head Visible Policing in Wynberg and Western Peninsula Area Offices,” said the statement.

He was appointed in 1996 by the then minister of safety and security to address corruption in the Western Cape and later in the  same year he was appointed as the Deputy Area Commissioner, East Metropole, Western Cape.”   

In 1998, he was transferred to the Organised Crime and Public Safety directorates and from the mid-2000s, he served as commander for special operations in the Western Cape.

He headed up investigations into urban terror and gangsterism in  the Western Cape.  In 2006, he was appointed divisional commissioner of the Crime Prevention and Operational Response Services and later became divisional commissioner for visible policing.