This paper surveys the past, present and future of teacher training in South Africa, in the context of the educational and societal reconstruction of South Africa. Before the twentieth century the bulk of the country's teachers were imported from Europe. In the twentieth century first a teacher-pupil system, then a system of teachers' training colleges and universities was used to train teachers. Towards the end of the previous political dispensation (which ended in 1994) enrolments had swollen, for social and political reasons rather than a rationally predicted demand for teachers, to the point that there was a gross over supply of teachers by 1994. The post-1994 societal and educational reconstruction program necessitated a complete overhaul of teacher training, the details of which are discussed below. Currently an ominous supply-demand imbalance is looming in the near future. This is, by all accounts, a world wide problem, and the paper concludes with suggestions for comparative education research to address this problem.