South Africa's struggling state-owned airline is to break into three business units as part of a restructuring plan, its chief executive Vuyani Jarani said on Monday.

Jarani said the firm - which has not made a profit since 2011 and was given a 5 billion rand bailout last year to shore up its balance sheet - will be split into domestic, regional and international business units, each with their own management. 

This comes as power utility Eskom is also expected to be ubundled into three entities - generation, transmission and distribution.

In his State of the Nation (Sona) reply, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Finance minister Tito Mboweni will, in his budget speech, announce steps government is going to take to assist Eskom financially.

"The decision we announced in the Sona to establish three separate state-owned entities; let me be clear, three separate 100% state-owned entities - for generation, transmission and distribution - has received the most attention. But it is by no means the only or most significant measure that must be undertaken," Ramaphosa said.

"In his budget speech next week, the minister of finance will detail the measure that government will undertake to assist Eskom to stabilise its finances. It has become clear that indeed Eskom does need to be assisted by the state so that it can stabilise its finances because doing so also means we are stabilising the economy of our country."

- Additional reporting by SowetanLIVE