Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(S.Afr.) a white southern Rhodesian who emigrated to South Africa (and Australia) when the country became Zimbabwe in 1980 and black rule was instituted.

1983		Rand Daily Mail 16 Sept. 1: Detention without acquittal would remain in Zimbabwe as long as there were threats from ‘South African destabilisation, bandits and old Rhodies who still try to carry on the war which ended at Lancaster House’ [DSAE].
1985		Herald (Harare) 6 July in Cornwell Global Multiculturalism 223: This invariably fed the racist arrogance among the ‘Rhodies’, the belief that their kith and kin [...] would ensure their survival.
1990		Weekly Mail (S.Afr.) 28 Sept. 9: They were told that the skills they’d acquired abroad were urgently required by the new, non-racial nation now that the Rhodies’ illegal government had been toppled [...] Cynics and doom merchants are already muttering that... there’ll be the same migration out of South Africa, though where the brains draining away go could be a problem (as it is for Rhodies) — the southern tip of the continent being the end of the road [DSAE].
1997		S. Nzenza-Shand Songs to an African Sunset 175: There are two types of white people in Zimbabwe – white Zimbabweans and Rhodies.