21 Facts About Dirk Mudge

At Namibian independence, Mudge was a member of the Constituent Assembly and 1st National Assembly until he retired in 1993.

Dirk Mudge was the founder of Namibia's Afrikaans daily Die Republikein and its publisher Namibia Media Holdings.

Dirk Mudge served on the board of directors until 2008.

Dirk Mudge, a White Namibian of Afrikaner descent with mixed Dutch and German roots, was born on the farm Rusthof near Otjiwarongo.

In 1955, Dirk Mudge became a member of the pro-apartheid National Party, which governed South Africa between 1948 and 1994.

Dirk Mudge was elected to the whites-only Legislative Assembly in 1961 to represent Otjiwarongo.

In 1965, Dirk Mudge became a member of the executive committee for South West Africa and thus a high-ranking administrator of the territory, holding this position until 1977.

Dirk Mudge founded the Republican Party shortly before the Turnhalle proceedings finished.

At that time Dirk Mudge founded Die Republikein, until today the only Afrikaans daily, as a mouthpiece of the RP.

Dirk Mudge established Democratic Media Holdings, the publishing agency of the newspaper.

On 1 July 1980, Dirk Mudge became the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the resulting government.

However, as president of the largest party in the TNGU, Dirk Mudge was the de facto leader of the government, and within the DTA, Dirk Mudge's Republican Party was seen as the driving force.

In November 1989, Dirk Mudge founded the Democratic Media Trust of Namibia, an agency funding newsprinting in Namibia with the mission to "promote a free and independent media in Namibia".

Dirk Mudge was chairman of the Board of Directors of the trust until 2008.

Dirk Mudge gained a seat on a DTA ticket in the 1989 election to the Constituent Assembly of Namibia which became independent Namibia's first National Assembly.

On 9 December 2016,69 years after graduating with a bachelor's degree, Dirk Mudge was awarded a PhD honoris causa by his alma mater Stellenbosch University.

Dirk Mudge retired from politics in April 1993 and returned to his farm Ovikere near Kalkfeld in Namibia's Otjozondjupa Region.

Dirk Mudge was the father of fellow politician Henk Dirk Mudge who succeeded him as leader of the Republican Party.

In May 2015, at the age of 86, Dirk Mudge published his autobiography.

Dirk Mudge has made a remarkable contribution with a text which merits both literary and scholarly value.

In 2020, Dirk Mudge contracted COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Namibia and developed a lung infection.