On 7 October 2011, Minister Gwendoline Mahlangu-Nkabinde officially handed over the Kimberley Correctional centre to the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), represented on the day by Deputy Minister Ngoako Ramathlodi.
The state of the art centre is a medium security facility, with the capacity to house up to three thousand inmates (3 000) at any given time. After identifying the need for a facility of that nature and size in the area of Kimberley, the DCS requested the DPW to undertake the construction of the centre in 2006. Constuction work on the project was concluded in February 2010. The centre has a fully functioning and productive bakery, a textile workshop, skills development workshop, a school and a Hospital amongst others.
On handing over the centre to the Deputy Minister, the Minister reiterated the commitment that Department of Public Works has made to the DCS to support their inmate skills development program. The Minister said "today we have seen the work that our inmates are capable of, we spend millions and millions at Public Works on furniture, and I want to bring that culture to an end. The office furniture that we have for all members of Parliament, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, for all the departments must come from the hands of the inmates, so that when they are released they have no other interest but to start their own businesses and contribute positively to their communities".
The Minister was referring to the pending agreement between the two departments, for DPW to stop sourcing furniture for Government offices and houses from external service providers, but to source all furniture from inmates in prisons around the country.
