A government-conducted property audit has revealed that the state owns 195 000 properties with an estimated value of R40-billion.
And now it plans to tap into that resource as it searches for money to recapitalise state-owned companies that have for the last few years struggled to stay afloat without the help of the National Treasury.
This was revealed by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba during his presentation of this year's national budget before the National Assembly on Wednesday.
He said the government property audit had been conducted by the department of public works‚ which manages government buildings and other property assets.
Gigaba said government was considering using the asset value of those properties to raise money to bail out some SOCs.