THE government is to enlist the help of spies and private detectives to help track down “missing” state buildings and clandestine apartheid-era property deals. The department of public works said on Wednesday that it is also thinking of advertising in local and foreign media for help in identifying these properties. The elusive building are those that, during apartheid years, were not directly registered in the name of the state. Since 1996 some 153000 pieces of land and buildings have been added to the department’s database.