UMTAPO was established in 1986 in response to the rise of internecine violence within the black community and the resultant division and intolerance that reared its ugly head. As a consequence, UMTAPO engaged in youth and women's leadership training programmes, literacy and popular education, and information dissemination through publications and public fora for critical discourse.

In 1996, UMTAPO worked with the South African Human Rights Commission and other organisations from the continent to develop a comprehensive Peace, Human Rights and Anti-Racism Education (PHARE) curriculum. This grew into a holistic liberatory programme to include training of teachers, learners, youth leaders, and education officials. The follow-on effect was the establishment of Peace Afrika Youth Centres and Peace Afrika Youth Forums (PAYFs) by unemployed young activists in disadvantaged areas; Peace Clubs in secondary schools; Children's Peace and Empowerment Forums (CPEFs) in primary schools; and Tertiary Peace Forums (TPFs) at universities.

More recently, as a consequence of its ongoing monitoring and participatory evaluation process, UMTAPO has converted the TPFs at universities to the UMTAPO Student Movement; and it has established Ubuntu Community Forums and the UMTAPO Women's Coalition in rural communities in which it works. 

Since its official opening in 1987, UMTAPO has recorded a number of unique and historical achievements, amongst them were:

• In 1988, convening the 1st National Conference on Violence in South Africa under the title Stop the Killing ?

• In 1990, being the 1^st organisation to conduct adult literacy classes at the hostels in Umlazi

• In 1991, convening the 1^st National Literacy Conference in South Africa

• In 1991, becoming the 1^st South African organisation to be accepted as a member of the African Association for Literacy and Adult Education (AALAE)

• In 1992, initiating the launch of the SA Association for Literacy and Adult Education, a national network led by and for the oppressed peoples of SA

• In 1994, hosting the Assistant Secretary General of the OAU at a Conference on the Black Family which led to the establishment of UMTAPOs African Peace Education Programme

• In 1995, becoming one of the founding organisations of CIVICUS, the world alliance for citizen participation

• In 1997, being requested to host the CIVICUS Africa Secretariat which it did until 1999

• In 1998, becoming the Southern Africa focal point for the Hague Appeal for Peace in preparation for the World Conference in the Hague

• In 1998, implementing an innovative African Peace Education Programme which later translated into the Peace, Human Rights and Anti-Racism Education (PHARE) Programme

• In 2002, having the UMTAPO peace and anti-racism education programme officially included in the provincial agenda of the Mpumalanga Department of Education

• In 2010, having its PHARE programme in particular the establishment of Peace Clubs in Schools officially adopted by the Eastern Cape Department of Education

• In 2012, initiating a global collaboration for peace and social activism with initial focal points in Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Kenya, and South Africa

• In 2012, developing through theory and praxis, a unique Model for Child Participation

• In 2014, initiating a unique Democracy, Human Rights and Anti-Corruption programme