the leadership of the DTA (22 seats) but including five smaller parties of eight seats each. The TNGU was chaired by its ministers on a round-robin basis, changing every three months. Mudge as Minister of Finance took the rotating chairmanship in 1986 and in 1988. However, as president of the largest party in the TNGU, Mudge was the de facto leader of the government, and within the DTA, Mudge's Republican Party was seen as the driving force. After Namibian independence 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". For the establishment of this trust, money was used that was originally meant to fight SWAPO in the 1989 independence elections. The trust owned Democratic Media Holdings which in turn owned John Meinert Printing, Namibia's biggest newspaper printing works. By 2007 the trust had sold its remaining stakes in the printing industry and became a charity dedicated to education and development. Mudge was chairman of the Board of Directors of the trust until 2008. 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. He retired in 1993. Legacy The effect of Mudge's political involvement on the progress of Namibia's independence is controversial. While on the one side he had been lauded for bringing about a multi-party political system and multi-ethnic elections, others see him as having delayed independence of the territory, prolonged the suffering of the indigenous population, and entrenched racial segregation. On 9 December 2016, 69 years after graduating with a bachelor's degree, Mudge was awarded a PhD honoris causa by his alma mater Stellenbosch University. The motivation read:“With exceptional visionary, strategic and transformational leadership, he not only served as “peace broker”, leading his traditional support base onto a new path, but also played a significant role in facilitating reconciliation between white and black in Namibia. In many respects, he helped break through the post-World War II impasse on the status and position of this former mandated territory of South Africa.” Retirement and death Dirk Mudge retired from politics in April 1993 and returned to his farm Ovikere near Kalkfeld in Namibia's Otjozondjupa Region. He was married to Stienie Jacobs (she died in 2017). Together, they had five children, sixteen grandchildren and twenty-three