The Union Buildings, Parliament in Cape Town and buildings such as the one we are handing over today have embedded in them our often contested notions of national identity. As the department of public works we have been privileged to be at the cutting edge of the process of the decolonization and re-appropriation of such buildings. We have moved such buildings from the status of the embarrassing child to that which symbolizes in bold letters a new and deracialising South Africa.
Some of the projects we have successfully delivered to date include the R76 million Kinshasa Diplomatic Village and the R115 million Berlin Embassy on behalf of Foreign Affairs.
We have already embarked on an intensive construction programme of four New Generation Prisons in Kimberely (Northern Cape), Klerksdorp (North West), Nigel and Leeuwkop (both in Gauteng). The total programme cost is estimated at R1 billion.
Each of the four prisons will cost more than R350 million and the Department has innovatively split the work into various subcontracts ranging from R1 million to R20 million each to allow emerging contractors to participate based on their capacity and capabilities. Approximately 40% of the value work in these prisons will be executed by the BEE contractors.
Other major capital works will include two construction projects for Correctional Services worth twelve and six million rand at Potchefstroom and Mogwase respectively, as well as two others for SAPS at Jouberton (eighteen million rand) and Amalia (eight million rand) - all in the North West province.
Both SAPS and Correctional Services in the Eastern Cape will benefit from the construction of the forty three million rand police headquarters at Bisho and a twenty one point five million rand piggery at the Middlesdrift correctional facility. A twenty two million rand Nerina Place of Safety is under construction for Justice. We are also upgrading the Forensic Science Laboratory in Tshwane.
In the Free State, we shall undertake, in phases, upgrading and renovation projects worth more than eighty five million rand at The Number Three Military Hospital on behalf of Defence. Others include the sixteen million rand upgrading and renovation project at Goedemoed Prison for Correctional Services and the construction of seven million rand and six million rand police stations at Verkykerskop and Phuthaditjhaba, respectively.
Again this we will do step by step, brick by brick to ensure that this country assumes its place of pride in Africa but also in the world.