 From 1992 to 2000 he served in the government as Minister of Home Affairs, and in 1991 he was appointed to the chair of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project.During the Rhodesian Bush War the white minority nicknamed him the "Black Russian" because he trained in Moscow, Russia.Dabengwa ran as a ZANU-PF candidate for a seat in the House of Assembly from Nkulumane in the 2000 election, but was defeated by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate Gibson Sibanda.