Smith travelled to South Africa for medical treatment in 2005, and moved into a retirement home overlooking the sea in St James, a southern suburb of Cape Town.
He was reportedly devastated by the death of his son Alec from a heart attack at London Heathrow Airport in January 2006.
Despite some marked differences—Alec had used illegal drugs in his youth, and openly opposed his father's policies while he was Prime Minister—they had been very close.
The elder Smith had referred to his son as "my rock".
Smith's stepdaughter Jean, who had married the prominent Rhodesian singer-songwriter Clem Tholet in 1967, was by this time also widowed.
She and Robert Smith cared for their stepfather in his final years.

After some weeks of illness, Ian Smith died in Cape Town on 20 November 2007 at the age of 88, having suffered a stroke.
Jean was with him.
His ashes were returned to Zimbabwe and scattered by his family at Gwenoro.
The farm continued to operate under the ownership of Smith's stepchildren until December 2012, when it was expropriated by the Zimbabwe government as part of the land reform programme and given to a technical college.

Investigations into alleged electoral fraud during the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe, when ZANU–PF was accused of using dead "ghost voters" to counter Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), revealed that Smith and hundreds of thousands of other dead people were still on the electoral roll.
According to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network's audit report, published in 2011, deceased "voters" made up 27% of the registered electorate.
Mugabe had insisted during his ultimately victorious campaign in 2008 that he would not allow the MDC to take power even if it won, asserting that "only God" could remove him from office.
Smith was finally struck off the voters' roll in April 2013, along with 345,000 other dead people.
Mugabe resigned the presidency four years later, after ZANU–PF moved to impeach him amid a military coup.
Smith travelled to South Africa for medical treatment in 2005, and moved into a retirement home overlooking the sea in St James, a southern suburb of Cape Town. He was reportedly devastated by the death of his son Alec from a heart attack at London Heathrow Airport in January 2006. Despite some marked differences—Alec had used illegal drugs in his youth, and openly opposed his father's policies while he was Prime Minister—they had been very close. The elder Smith had referred to his son as "my rock". Smith's stepdaughter Jean, who had married the prominent Rhodesian singer-songwriter Clem Tholet in 1967, was by this time also widowed. She and Robert Smith cared for their stepfather in his final years.
After some weeks of illness, Ian Smith died in Cape Town on 20 November 2007 at the age of 88, having suffered a stroke. Jean was with him. His ashes were returned to Zimbabwe and scattered by his family at Gwenoro. The farm continued to operate under the ownership of Smith's stepchildren until December 2012, when it was expropriated by the Zimbabwe government as part of the land reform programme and given to a technical college.
Investigations into alleged electoral fraud during the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe, when ZANU–PF was accused of using dead "ghost voters" to counter Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), revealed that Smith and hundreds of thousands of other dead people were still on the electoral roll. According to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network's audit report, published in 2011, deceased "voters" made up 27% of the registered electorate. Mugabe had insisted during his ultimately victorious campaign in 2008 that he would not allow the MDC to take power even if it won, asserting that "only God" could remove him from office. Smith was finally struck off the voters' roll in April 2013, along with 345,000 other dead people. Mugabe resigned the presidency four years later, after ZANU–PF moved to impeach him amid a military coup.
Ian Smith