In this episode of Conversations with Gabriel, Gabriel Makin sits down with lawyer, chartered accountant, and the founder of the School Capture project, Richard Wilkinson. Richard exposes the rise of critical race theory and activist politics in South African schools. He traces how Marxist and postmodern ideas from his University of Cape Town days evolved into identity politics, spreading from the Rhodes Must Fall, Fees Must Fall, and Black Lives Matter movements into classrooms via activists, consultants, and officials.

Gabriel and Richard unpack core concepts such as intersectionality, anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion, and microaggressions that divide people into oppressors and oppressed. Richard details his School Capture project documenting teachers, parents, and pupils targeted by ideological campaigns, plus the explosive Pretoria Girls’ High School controversy involving the Gauteng Department of Education, media coverage, legal battles, and Thabo Mbeki's intervention. They discuss the damage to children and teachers, the backlash against woke ideology, whether South Africa has passed peak woke, and Richard's decade-long effort to document school activism.