Harare — THIS country is in serious trouble. If ever there were any doubts as to how much trouble this nation is in, yesterday's action by MDC-T should have dispelled any debate on the matter.

After President Mugabe called for a Cabinet meeting yesterday morning, MDC-T decided that it would not attend this very important aspect of the management of the Executive's business in Zimbabwe.

Their reason, in a nutshell, is that President Mugabe should not have called for Cabinet on a Monday when it is traditionally held on Tuesdays.

MDC-T is the second largest party in the inclusive Government.

The party leader is the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, meaning that he is the most senior Minister in the Government appointed by President Mugabe.

The party's deputy leader is the Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.

Their secretary-general is the Minister of Finance in the same President Mugabe-appointed Government.

By any measure, the Global Political Agreement that caused the creation of the inclusive Government can have no legal or practical force without the active involvement of Prime Minister Tsvangirai's party.

But at the same time, the importance of MDC-T to the functionality of the inclusive Government should not make anyone from that party -- or from any other for that matter -- think that they can hold the rest of the nation at ransom.

Yesterday, MDC-T deputy president and one of Zimbabwe's two Deputy Prime Ministers, Madam Thokozani Khupe said her party would not attend Monday's Cabinet meeting.

Her list of gripes was as long as it reflected the standard fare issued by the party since the inclusive Government was constituted after President Mugabe swore Mr Tsvangirai into office as Prime Minister.

She spoke of a "lack of paradigm shift on the part of Zanu-PF" because Dr Gideon Gono was still the Governor of the Reserve Bak of Zimbabwe and Mr Johannes Tomana is still the Attorney-General.

She insinuated that all the members of her party that are in Cabinet could not attend yesterday's meeting because Roy Bennet had not yet been sworn into office as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

She suggested that as long as the list of Provincial Governors had not been amended to suit the views of MDC-T then a Cabinet meeting could not be held.

And, of course, there was the obligatory mention of abductions, arrests, victimisation, land invasions and general campaign of violence against her party's supporters, activists and functionaries.

And after all that she had to say The Herald and ZBC were continuing to "churn our vitriol and propaganda"!

But that was only the tip of the iceberg.

The conclusion of her press conference can be described as nothing short of trying to hold the nation at ransom.

"However," she said, "whilst we remain fundamentally committed to the GPA in the interests of our people, it is our own constitutional right to consider disengagement."

Then she invoked Christ's name to remove "toxicity and insanity" from the GPA, which two unwanted elements -- from the entire tone of her presentation -- are emanating from Zanu-PF alone.

What is at play here may be nothing short of mere politicking and public posturing, or it could be something much worse, much more sinister.

After all, why would Ms Khupe, Mr Tsvangirai's deputy in MDC-T, speak of abductions a few days after her boss was quoted by BBC's Radio One raising skepticism about the existence of extra-judicial detentions?

In that interview (whose transcript, interestingly enough, was released by the United Kingdom's Foreign Office), PM Tsvangirai indicated that there was no real evidence of the so-called abductions.

Why then would his deputy contradict him so openly and so brazenly just a few days later?

Is she saying the Prime Minister was mistaken, mis-quoted, or that he simply does not know what the hell he is talking about?

Whichever it is, it points to a serious public policy discord within the ranks of the second largest party in the inclusive Government.

And then there is this surprising emergent trend among MDC-T officials who are also members of the Executive of threatening the life span of the inclusive Government.

It certainly does look weird when the Deputy Prime Minister conveniently sets aside her State hat and dons her party colours so that she can attack the lack of GPA-related progress of the Government that she is a very senior member of.

But that is not the real issue.

MDC-T, as a duly-registered political party that has supplied a Prime Minister, a Deputy PM and several Ministers to a national Government, certainly has earned the right to have its own internecine strife if it so wishes.

The problem arises when this party decides that it should boycott a Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet is not, strictly speaking, a constitutional body.

It is an administrative structure that the President, as Head of State, constitutes and congregates so as to improve formulation, co-ordination and implementation of Government policy.

That is why it is not a body that can be dissolved.

Rather, the President appoints and swears into office Ministers as per his constitutional mandate.

In essence, to sit in this thing called "Cabinet", is to do so at the good graces of the President.

In many countries across the world there is no such thing as "Cabinet".

Heads of State simply have their own "inner circles" of senior ministers with whom they meet as often as they please.

In other countries, Cabinet meetings are not held in the absence of the Head of State and Government -- even if there is something called a deputy chair of cabinet.

Zimbabwe, though, prefers to keep intact an administrative body called a Cabinet for the good functioning of State business.

President Mugabe, in all honesty, does not by law have to call for a Cabinet meeting.

Even then, these have been held with regularity on Tuesdays for the sake of co-ordination and charting progress.

But that does not mean Cabinet meetings have to be held on Tuesdays only.

There is no law in this country that says our ministers and ex-officio members of Cabinet meet on the third day of the week.

So what then is MDC's problem with having a Cabinet meeting on Monday?

Ms Khupe explained their position thus: "This (Monday) morning, we were advised that Cabinet had been shifted from its mandated day of Tuesday to Monday at 10 am.

"Innocent and innocuous as this decision may be, the fact of the matter is that it underpins everything wrong about the present arrangement.

"The decision seeks to deny the recognition of the Prime Minister as chair of Cabinet when the President is away. Mr Mugabe has indicated that he will not be present on Tuesday (today) and hence the unilateral decision to move Cabinet forward to today."

She went on to call yesterday's Cabinet meeting "informal and unilateral".

While her argument might appear sound, it actually reflects a tendency to place a single party in the inclusive Government in superior stead to the business of the State.

What Ms Khupe is telling us is that MDC-T will take the unilateral decision not to attend Cabinet whenever they feel that the meeting has been called on a day that is not Tuesday because that is "unilateral".

She is saying her party is of the opinion that important State business must come to a complete halt because President Mugabe would like to meet his Vice Presidents, Prime Minister, their Deputies and portfolio heads on a Monday.

President Mugabe is attending the African Union Summit in Libya this week and he obviously felt that he would like to meet his appointees before he left for that very weighty coming together of his fellow Heads of State and Government.

Is Ms Khupe telling the nation that President Mugabe has no right -- without even speaking about the constitutional authority -- to call for a meeting of his Government functionaries whenever he feels he should?

And the suggestion that Ms Khupe makes to the effect that President Mugabe is trying to emasculate the deputy chair of Cabinet, PM Tsvangirai, is a mischievous political yarn.

PM Tsvangirai chairs a body called the Council of Ministers.

This is a body that, to the best of this writer's understanding, was created through the GPA as per the request of MDC-T negotiators to the party talks so that the Prime Minister would also have opportunity to interface directly with Cabinet ministers.

Hence, even if no Cabinet meeting is held on the Tuesday that the Honourable Ms Khupe evidently considers so holy as to be the Sabbath of the Executive, PM Tsvangirai can meet with Cabinet ministers under the aegis of the Council of Ministers that he chairs.

So yesterday, President Mugabe effectively met with just over half of his Government before he flies out on official business.

This means only half the Government knows what the agenda for the coming week is because nearly another half felt that President Mugabe's Cabinet meeting should not have been held on a Monday.

This writer started this piece by saying that Zimbabwe is in big trouble.

It will be repeated here: we are in serious trouble.

If the second largest party in the inclusive Government feels that State business can only be coordinated on Tuesday's then only heaven knows where we are going.

And this is not "vitriol and propaganda"!