State-owned entities are no longer “sacrosanct” and untouchable‚ Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Wednesday‚ as he announced that the government is mulling plans to merge‚ reconfigure or even close some of the poorer performing ones. Struggling national carrier South African Airways (SAA) faces a merger with SA Express and Gordhan has given the strongest indication yet that government is looking to take on a private investor to salvage the airline.The finance minister said the country had “too many” state-owned enterprises and was looking at the small and medium entities in particular to merge them or shut them down. And with total government guarantees for all SOEs at R467 billion‚ with a negative return on equity‚ some are a major strain on the public purse.But Gordhan said over time‚ he hoped "the word bailout will be erased from our vocabulary”.While he said to not use the word “privatisation” in connection with SAA‚ he made it clear during a pre-budget speech press conference on Wednesday that government is mulling a “minority equity partnership” for the ailing airline.SAA‚ which has not yet tabled its 2014/15 annual report‚ will report a loss‚ as a result of “high operating costs‚ increased competition on all routes‚ asset impairments and higher finance costs” but Gordhan said one of the first steps to righting the airline‚ was putting a permanent board in place.He said a new list of board members had been compiled and would be sent to cabinet within a few weeks for approval.In his speech‚ he said Public Enterprises “Minister (Lynne) Brown and I have agreed to explore the possible merger of SAA and SA Express under a strengthened board‚ with a view to engaging with a potential minority partner‚ and to create a bigger‚ more operationally efficient airline.”SA Express told Parliament’s public enterprises committee last week that they had managed to turn a small profit‚ but this was not nearly enough the needed for a planned fleet renewal programme. The airline said it had drawn up some funding plans which it planned to submit to government.- Eskom meanwhile has received R14 billion of the R23 billion government appropriation approved last year. The budget review states that an additional requested R5 billion had been delayed until certain conditions around implementing cost reductions and improving maintenance had been met. But Gordhan said on Wednesday that R3 billion of this amount had been approved‚ with the remainder expected to be approved by March.- The South African Post Office recorded a net loss of R1.5 billion in 2014/15 due to declining revenue‚ the loss of key customers during massive strikes and poor performance of its courier business.- The Central Energy Fund was primarily responsible for the decline return on equity (which was at -2.9 percent in 15/15). The entity reported massive losses of R14.3 billion on top of the previous year’s R1.5 billion loss. But the budget review states that despite the significant losses “the CEF has significant reserves and remains solvent and liquid”‚ adding that the CEF would be “repositioned” to contribute to energy security...