TARA ROOS | Liam Jacobs saga tells us something uncomfortable about SA politics

Less than a year ago, Liam Jacobs left the DA to join the Patriotic Alliance (PA). At the time, it was presented as a major political realignment.

The PA celebrated the move as proof that its influence was growing. Jacobs became one of the party’s most prominent public faces. He attacked the DA. He defended the PA. He explained why he had left. He explained why he had joined. He explained why voters should believe he had found a new political home.

Now he is back. In less than a year Jacobs has completed what can only be described as a political round trip. He left parliament. He became the PA’s Tshwane mayoral candidate. He served in the Johannesburg council. He then became the PA’s Cape Town mayoral candidate and moved to the Cape Town council. A few weeks ago he announced he would be returning to parliament. Now he is returning to the DA.

The story itself is remarkable. What is even more remarkable is what it reveals about the state of South African politics. Because the real question is not whether Jacobs was right to leave the DA. Nor is it whether he is right to return.

The real question is this: when was he telling the truth? Was he telling the truth when he criticised the PA while serving in the DA? Was he telling the truth when he criticised the DA while serving in the PA? Or is he telling the truth now that he has returned to the DA and once again finds himself criticising the PA?

The uncomfortable reality is that all three positions cannot simultaneously be true. At some point he was spinning. This is the problem with modern politics. Political parties have become extraordinarily sophisticated narrative machines. Their job is not necessarily to tell voters what is true. It is to persuade voters that whatever is politically convenient today has always been true.

One day a politician is presented as a traitor. The next day he is presented as a visionary. One day a political party is corrupt, incompetent and morally bankrupt. The next day it is a trusted coalition partner. One day a leader is celebrated as a statesman. The next day he is denounced as a danger to democracy.

Political parties have become extraordinarily sophisticated narrative machines. Their job is not necessarily to tell voters what is true. It is to persuade voters that whatever is politically convenient today has always been true.

The facts all too often change less than the narratives do. Every political party does it. The political spin machine never sleeps. When politicians move between parties, they often expose this contradiction more clearly than anyone else could. The statements remain on social media. The interviews remain online. The speeches remain on YouTube. The quotes remain in newspaper archives.

Voters can see the before and after. They can see politicians making arguments they once rejected. They can see parties embracing people they once condemned. They can see political enemies becoming political allies overnight.

Politicians often blame voter apathy on disengagement or ignorance. Perhaps the problem is simpler. Perhaps voters have simply become tired of being sold narratives that change every election cycle. Perhaps they have become sceptical of politicians who speak with absolute certainty today only to adopt the opposite position tomorrow.

The Jacobs saga reminds us that political parties are not neutral sources of information. They are political actors pursuing political objectives. Their communications departments exist to win support, shape perceptions and advance narratives. That is their job.

The lesson from the Jacobs saga is not that one politician is uniquely inconsistent or that one political party is uniquely dishonest. It’s that voters should never outsource their judgment to political parties or politicians.

Listen to what they say. Then compare it with what they said a year ago. Compare it with what they did. And then compare it with what happened. Because in South African politics, the spin is often the easiest thing to find. The truth usually requires a little more work.

• Roos is Business Day parliamentary reporter.