SADTU was founded in 1990 following successful teacher unity talks to establish a national unitary non-racial and non-sexist union of educators. Today the union's membership stands at 240,000 representing nearly two-thirds of South Africa's educators. SADTU is the largest union in the public service and the second largest union in the country.

Forged in the struggle against apartheid and Bantu education, SADTU is affiliated to the national labour federation, COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) and as part of COSATU we participate fully in the Tripartite Alliance of COSATU, the ANC (African National Congress) and the SACP (South African Communist Party).

As a union of educational workers, our goals include the following:

• To fight for better remuneration and working conditions for educational workers
• To represent and promote the professional aspirations of educators
• To play a leading role in the struggle for education transformation to deliver free and equal quality public education for all.
• To participate in the struggle to deepen the NDR and for socialism
• In order to meet these goals, we have to constantly improve organisation and to conscientise and mobilise our members.