Author Archives: Geo Quinot

Webinar series on draft South African Public Procurement Regulations

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On 16 April 2026, the South African National Treasury published draft regulations under the Public Procurement Act 2024 for public comment (see at this link). Once promulgated, these regulations will enable the Act to commence.

Two sets of regulations were published, the draft Public Procurement Tribunal Regulations, 2026 and the draft General Public Procurement Regulations, 2026. In combination, these sets of regulations constitute a comprehensive set of rules to govern public procurement in South Africa in future. Public comments on the draft Tribunal regulations are due by 15 May and on the draft General regulations by 15 June.

APLU in partnership with Shaun Scott of Public Procurement Innovation Research (PPiR) is hosting a series of webinars on the Public Sector SCM Collaboration Platform to unpack the draft Regulations. The aim is to generate debate around the draft regulations and facilitate meaningful submissions. The series starts on 29 April at 10am (CAT) and continues until 10 June. Anyone is welcome to register at the link below.

Click here to register
Click here to view recordings of past sessions on YouTube

APLU participates in the first South Africa Innovation week

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In March 2026, the first SA Innovation Week was hosted by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) in partnership with South African Innovation Summit (SAIS) and supported by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI). SA Innovation Week (SAIW) is the official national platform connecting innovators, investors, industry leaders and policymakers in a coordinated, unconference, deal-making, outcomes-driven innovation platform designed to accelerate commercialisation and strengthen competitiveness.

SBRI Colloquium during SA Innovation Week (March 16–20)

APLU participated in one of the key events of the SA Innovation Week 2026, namely the SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) Colloquium. The Colloquium, which was sponsored by the UK High Commission, focused on how public procurement can be a driver of innovation. Prof Quinot participated in one of the panel discussions at the Colloquium focusing on the role that law generally and the unfolding procurement law reform in South Africa in particular, can play in unlocking the potential of public procurement as a driver of innovation.

Quinot delivers keynote opening speech at the 5th APPN Assembly

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At the end of November 2025, APLU Director, Prof Geo Quinot, delivered the keynote address at the 5th Assembly of the African Public Procurement Network (APPN) that was hosted by the Government of Zimbabwe (which held the 2025 presidency of the APPN) at Victoria Falls. The APPN is the continental body bringing together the chief procurement offices of 53 African states to deliberate on matters of mutual interest. The General Assembly, composed of heads of national public procurement authorities, is the highest decision-making body of the APPN, setting strategic direction, electing leadership, and guiding key decisions at its annual assembly.

Speakers with the APPN Executive at the 5th APPN Assembly
Quinot delivering the keynote opening at the 5th APPN Assembly

In his opening keynote speech, Quinot argued that public procurement is one of the keys to unlocking the African continent’s full potential, but that it will only be possible if African states collectively and intentionally tailor their public procurement systems with optimal developmental objectives as primary objective while pursuing maximum integrity within and integration across national procurement systems. He outlined the various strands of public procurement law and policy where innovation is required to achieve these goals.

Prof Quinot also participated in a panel discussion during the course of the Assembly on Reinforcing Governance Through Public Procurement: A Social Contract Approach. This panel explored the ways in which public procurement systems should intentionally be anchored in the needs of societies turning such societies into primary structures of governance.

Panel on Reinforcing Governance Through Public Procurement: A Social Contract Approach

APLU researchers contribute to international deliberations on public procurement

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APLU researchers, Prof Geo Quinot and Prof Sope Williams, participated in several international engagements on public procurement law and policy during 2025.

Prof Williams participated in the 3rd International Congress of Public Procurement in Buenos Aires in November 2025, where she presented a paper on gender responsive procurement. In December, Williams participated in the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption, held in Doha.

The 3rd International Congress of Public Procurement, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

In September 2025, Prof Geo Quinot contributed to the 6th Interdisciplinary Symposium on Public Procurement, held in Lisbon, Portugal. He presented a paper on public procurement integrity at the digital frontier. In October, Quinot (virtually) delivered the keynote address at a conference on local content in public procurement hosted by the Polish Public Procurement Law Association (PPLA) and the Chair of European Law at the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Law and Administration, Warsaw, Poland.

6th Interdisciplinary Symposium on Public Procurement, Lisbon
Local content in public procurement, Warsaw

APLU again assists NRF to host international procurement conference

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For the second year in a row, APLU assisted the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) to host an international conference on public procurement. The 2024 conference focused on specifications and methods in public procurement and was hosted on 4 and 5 September 2024 at the NRF Headquarters in Pretoria. For more information, click here.

Prof Geo Quinot

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Geo Quinot is trained in law, public administration and higher education. He is currently a Professor of Law in the Department of Public Law and the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University, South Africa as well as Founding Director of the African Procurement Law Unit (APLU). He is also admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa. Quinot teaches administrative law and public procurement law in the Law Faculty and the School for Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University. He also regularly instructs public administrators in both administrative law and public procurement regulation. His research focuses on general administrative law, including a particular focus on the regulation of state commercial activity such as public procurement, insolvency of organs of state as well as on legal education.

Quinot has published widely in these areas. He is the author, co-author and/or editor of ten book publications, the most recent of which are Municipalities in Financial Distress: An Environmental, Social and Governance Critique to be published by Edward Elgar in 2025; Public Procurement Regulation in Africa: Development in Uncertain Times, published by LexisNexis in 2020 and Administrative Justice in South Africa: An Introduction, the second edition of which was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. Quinot is a past editor-in-chief of the journal, Stellenbosch Law Review and the founding editor-in-chief of the open-access journal, African Public Procurement Law Journal. As an advocate, Quinot advises on matters relating to administrative law and especially public procurement law to both public buyers (organs of state) and suppliers to the state.

Quinot obtained the degrees BA(Law) and LLB, both cum laude, at Stellenbosch University; LLM (Master of Laws) at the University of Virginia School of Law in the USA as a Fulbright scholar; MA (Master of Arts in Higher Education Studies) cum laude at the University of the Free State; MPA (Master in Public Administration) cum laude from the University of Birmingham in the UK and LLD (Doctor of Laws) at Stellenbosch University.

A selection of relevant publications

Books

  1. Quinot G State Commercial Activity: A Legal Framework (2009) Juta & Co
  2. Quinot G & Arrowsmith S (eds) Public Procurement Regulation in Africa (2013) Cambridge University Press (co-author and co-editor)
  3. Williams-Elegbe S & Quinot G (eds) Public Procurement Regulation for 21st Century Africa (2018) Juta & Co
  4. Quinot G & Williams-Elegbe S (eds) Public Procurement Regulation in Africa: Development in Uncertain Times (2020) LexisNexis
  5. Vaccari, E, Coordes, LN, Marique, Y, & Quinot, G Municipalities in Financial Distress: An Environmental, Social and Governance Critique (2025, forthcoming) Edward Elgar Publishing (co-author)

Chapters in books

  1. Bolton, P. & Quinot, G. “Social Policies in Procurement and the Government Procurement Agreement: a Perspective from South Africa” in S Arrowsmith & R Anderson (eds) The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Recent Developments and Challenges Ahead (2011) Cambridge University Press
  2. Quinot, G. “Public Contracts” in A Farazmand (ed) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy (2016) Springer
  3. Quinot, G. “Private Law and Public Administration” in A Farazmand (ed) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy (2016) Springer 52-68
  4. Quinot, G. “Control and litigation in public contracts in South Africa” in L Folliot Lalliot & S Torricelli (eds) Contrôles et contentieux des contrats publics – Oversight and Challenges of public contracts (2018) Bruylant
  5. Quinot G. “Constitutionalising Public Procurement through Human Rights: Lessons from South Africa” in O Martin-Ortega & C Methven O’Brien (eds) Public Procurement and Human Rights (2019) Edward Elgar Publishing
  6. Quinot, G. “Differences in States’ Procurement Practices” in A Farazmand (ed) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. (2021) Springer https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1527-1
  7. Quinot, G., Williams-Elegbe, S & Udeh, K.T. “Emergency Procurement and Responses to COVID-19 in Africa: The Contrasting Cases of South Africa and Nigeria” in S Arrowsmith, LRA Butler, A La Chimia & C Yukins (eds) Public Procurement Regulation in (a) Crisis? (2021) Bloomsbury Publishing
  8. FAO, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and Editora da UFRGS https://doi.org/10.4060/cb7960en
  9. Quinot, G. “Local Public Entities in Distress: An Analysis of the South African Approach” in E. Vaccari, Y. Marique & L.N. Coordes (eds) Local Public Entities in Distress: A Global Study (2022) Insol International
  10. Quinot, G. “Legal Regulation of Public Procurement in South Africa” in K. Kichik & G. Mordokhov (eds) Public Procurement Law Around the World Vol II (2022) Yustitsinform
  11. Quinot, G. “Human rights and developmental considerations in procuring for Africa’s first World Cup” in O. Martin-Ortega & L. Trevino-Lozano (eds) Sustainable Public Procurement of Infrastructure and Human Rights (2023) Edward Elgar
  12. Quinot, G. “Corruption and Covid-19 procurement” in S. Williams & J. Tillipman (eds) Routledge Handbook of Public Procurement Corruption (2024) Routledge
  13. Quinot, G. “The UNCITRAL Model Law and the Past and Future of Procurement Regulation in Africa” in A La Chimia & M Trybus (eds) Reforming Public Procurement Law (2024) Hart Publishing.
  14. Quinot, G. & Rosa, B.V. “Preferences and political economy in public procurement. Colloquium” in Castelli, A., Piga, G. & Tátrai, T. (eds) The Economics and Law of Public Procurement: New Global Scenarios (2024) Routledge

Journal articles

  1. Quinot, G. “Enforcement of Procurement Law from a South African Perspective” (2011) 20 Public Procurement Law Review 193 – 206
  2. Quinot, G. “The Role of Quality in the Adjudication of Public Tenders” (2014) 17 Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 1110-1136 (http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/pelj.v17i3.08)
  3. Quinot, G.“In-house provisioning and South African public procurement law” (2014) 39 Journal for Juridical Science 115-129
  4. Quinot, G. “Innovation, state contracting and public procurement law” (2015) 7 Trade, Law and Development 137-155 (http://www.tradelawdevelopment.com/index.php/tld/article/viewFile/7%281%29%20TL%26D%20137%20%282015%29/248)
  5. Quinot G. “The Third Wave of Preferential Procurement Regulations in South Africa” (2018) Journal of South African Law 856-867
  6. Arrowsmith, S. , Bayley, R., Gorczynska, A., Idoko, J, Kay, S., Lopes, J.F. Cifuentes, C.S.B., Quinot, G., Ren, K., Nobel, A., Solomanyan, A., Sobieraj, I., Soós, G. and Thurston, A. “Procuring infrastructure for international sporting events: mapping the field for IPACS and beyond” (2019) 28:6 Public Procurement Law Review 257-318
  7. Stoffel, T., Cravero, C., La Chimia, A. and Quinot, G. “Multidimensionality of Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)—Exploring Concepts and Effects in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe” (2019) 11:22, 6352 Sustainability, 1-23 https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6352
  8. Shai, L., Molefinyana, C. and Quinot, G. “Public Procurement in the Context of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) in South Africa—Lessons Learned for Sustainable Public Procurement” (2019) 11:24, 7164 Sustainability, 1-27  https://doi.org/10.3390/su11247164
  9. Quinot, G. “Reforming Procurement Law in South Africa” (2020) 7 African Public Procurement Law Journal 1-15 (https://applj.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/27)
  10. Quinot, G. & Williams-Elegbe, S. “Some African Responses to Public Procurement for and during COVID-19” (2020) 30 Public Procurement Law Review 232-237
  11. Quinot, G. “Justification, integration, and expertise: South Africa’s regulatory response to COVID-19” (2021) 73(1) Administrative Law Review 105-120 http://www.administrativelawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11.-ALR-73.1_Quinot-South-Africa_FINAL.pdf
  12. Quinot, G. & Anthony, A. “Towards Open Contracting in South African Public Procurement Law” (2022) 31 Public Procurement Law Review 113-119
  13. Quinot, G. “Public Procurement Law” (2022) 3 Yearbook of South African Law 1161-1174
  14. Quinot, G. “Contemporary trends in the development of public procurement law in South Africa” (2023) 85(1) Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny 71 https://doi.org/10.14746/rpeis.2023.85.1.07
  15. Quinot, G. “Developments in Comparative Public Law in South Africa” (2023) 1 Droit Public Comparé – Comparative Public Law https://publications-prairial.fr/droit-public-compare/index.php?id=119
  16. Quinot, G. “Public Procurement Law” (2023) 4 Yearbook of South African Law 1223-1237
  17. Edquist, C. & Quinot, G. “Functional Public Procurement and Innovation – A Conceptual Framework” (2025) 34 Public Procurement Law Review 33-46

Workshop on Public Procurement Reform in South Africa 2024

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On 24 to 25 July 2024, APLU convened a national workshop on public procurement reform in South Africa.

The aim of the workshop was to bring together all stakeholders to discuss current developments in public procurement reform in South Africa. The workshop is a continuation of a project started in 2023, broadly aimed at collective reflection on what public procurement system the procurement community wants and needs in South Africa and how all stakeholders can collaborate to get there.

Chief Justice Zondo delivering the opening address at the Workshop on 24 July.

The 2024 workshop was opened by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, in which he reminded delegates that public procurement was at the heart of state capture as identified by the State Capture Commission which he chaired. He thus emphasised the importance of the aims of the workshop in pursuit of a reformed public procurement system in South Africa. The Chief Justice called on all delegates to carefully scrutinise current reform projects, such as the new Public Procurement Act and regulations to be made under the Act, to ensure that the weaknesses that enabled state capture through public procurement are effectively addressed.

The presentations by the various speakers can be viewed at the link below and recordings of the live stream are available on APLU’s YouTube channel.

Programme
Presentations
YouTube

This project is funded by the Millennium Trust.

APLU CONTRIBUTES GLOBAL REVOLUTION 2024 CONFERENCE

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On 17 to 18 June 2024, the Public Procurement Research Group at the University of Nottingham hosted its biennial international conference on public procurement law. The 2024 conference again gathered scholars from multiple disciplines around the world to discuss current research and developments in the field of public procurement.

APLU was again one of the collaborating partners for the conference and contributed to several sessions. Prof Geo Quinot delivered a plenary keynote that focused on reconceptualising public procurement (law and practice) globally. Prof Sope Williams shared insights from her most recent research addressing the corruption barriers to gender responsive procurement in a session that focused on diversity in procurement. Prof Quinot also joined Prof François Lichère of the Université Jean Moulin Lyon and Director of the Chair of Public Contract Law (Chaire de droit des contrats publics), Prof Christopher Yukins of the George Washington University School of Law and Prof Tünde Tátrai of the Corvinus University of Budapest on a panel that discussed deference to contracting authority decisions in procurement disputes.

Prof Quinot delivering his keynote plenary address
Prof Quinot, Prof Tatrai, Prof Lichere
Prof Williams sharing insights on diversity in procurement
Prof Annamaria La Chimia, Director of the PPRG and APLU Associate Researcher opening the conference