The real fact is that I could no longer stand their eternal cold mutton.

Jacob Zuma. This was considered a nationalist political stunt in the run up to an election rather than representing any genuine national desire to remove the grave. Rhodes' only major impact on domestic politics within the United Kingdom was his support of the Irish nationalist party led by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891).

McFarlane has called Rhodes "as integral a participant in southern African and British imperial history as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln are in their respective eras in United States history. In 1980 Rhodesia which had been de facto independent since 1965 became a recognised independent country renamed Zimbabwe. He set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship which is funded by his estate.