Rabie entered politics as Reiger Park's representative on the Coloured Representative Council, where he was a member throughout the council's existence from 1969 to 1980. He joined the council as a member of the Federal Coloured People's Party but, after being expelled from the party, he sat as an independent before joining the Labour Party in 1978. He became the Labour Party's chairman in the Transvaal in 1982 and was elected to the House of Representatives under its banner when the Tricameral Parliament was established in 1984. During his first term in the house, he split from the Labour Party to establish the United Democratic Party. He joined the governing National Party (NP) in 1991 and represented it in the National Assembly after the end of apartheid in 1994.
