ZANU PF has seized on a leaked letter from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to President Robert Mugabe to demand quick elections, saying the contents of the memo proved that the coalition government had become dysfunctional.

A furious political storm erupted on Sunday after a state-run newspaper printed what it said was a “draft” letter by Tsvangirai to Mugabe.

In it, Tsvangirai complained that Mugabe was acting unilaterally in making key government appointments and failing to reign in Zanu PF ministers who boycott meetings and fail to carry out Cabinet directives.

Tsvangirai’s aides fell short of accusing the President’s Office of leaking the letter, and accused the Sunday Mail of breaching the Official Secrets Act by publishing the 3,460-word missive.

“The publication of that memorandum was against the law and in conflict with known Cabinet rules,” said Jameson Timba, a Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office.

President Robert Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba insisted on Tuesday that Mugabe had not yet received the said letter, and suggested it was one of Tsvangirai’s staff who may have leaked it to the media.

Charamba blasted: “Who breached the Official Secrets Act — is it the newspaper which published the document or the people who leaked it? In the first place, nothing came to the President and he did not receive anything from the PM.

“One cannot breach confidentiality on something that does not exist and, as things stand, there was no dispatch from the PM to the President. The PM should be wary of his staff who are betraying his trust and confidentiality.”

President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, meanwhile, says the accusations and counter accusations between various government departments make the case for quick elections this year, which Tsvangirai is resisting.

Tsholotsho North MP and Zanu PF strategist Jonathan Moyo said Tuesday that his party was “sick and tired” of sharing power with the MDC factions.

He said in an interview: “It is a blessing in disguise that the letter is not worth a dime because it is old stuff, there is nothing new. It is old stuff about which everybody is sick and tired.

Taking aim at the Prime Minister, Moyo suggested the leak would have likely come from “someone in Timba’s office who had had enough of these letters”.

They had form in this, Moyo claimed, pointing to the embarrassing moment last November when Tsvangirai's Office issued a statement confirming his marriage to Lorcadia Tembo, before trying to recall it for a revised draft.

He added: “Many people in and outside Zimbabwe are getting sick and tired that whenever the MDC messes up, they blame Zanu PF or anybody else. They never take responsibility, never ever.

“If you cannot accept responsibility, you cannot discharge responsibility. Only those who exercise responsibility take ownership for things that go right and things that go wrong. That’s the mark of excellence: to accept responsibility for better or for worse.

“In reference to this particular letter, the Sunday Mail says it is a draft. The idea that the President received a draft is stupid, unless they are telling us that when they write their letters they consult the President.

In the letter, Tsvangirai pleaded with Mugabe to “give momentum to our agreement by facilitating the creation of an enabling environment for our people to exercise their right to choose their leaders freely and fairly”.

He outlined a raft of outstanding commitments made during negotiations for the coalition, largely blaming Mugabe’s Zanu PF party for stalling progress.

Mugabe, who turns 88 on February 21, wants elections this year, but his rivals say any elections held in the current environment would produce a disputed outcome and plunge the country into political mayhem.

A draft of the country’s new constitution is going to the printers this week. Zanu PF wants elections held soon after the constitutional referendum, and warns that polls could still be held even without the new charter.