This article compares key features of the labour markets for teachers across Botswana and South Africa in order to seek possible explanations for the apparently larger teacher shortages in South Africa. It is argued that South African teachers earn relatively lower wages when compared to professionals with comparable qualifications; they have also been subject to a more haphazard series of reforms in teacher training, and are the product of a teaching culture shaped heavily by powerful trade unions. The impact of these factors on both the quantity and quality of teachers is considered.