HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) – Zimbabwe’s government said the country’s 90-year-old president did not fall down the stairs from a podium, saying President Robert Mugabe “managed to break the fall.”
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told the state-owned Herald newspaper Thursday that Mugabe tripped over a hump on a red carpet at Harare International Airport. Moyo said there was no evidence of Mugabe actually falling.
Moyo said even Jesus would have tripped over the mislaid carpet. The Herald newspaper also published a collage of other world leaders who have stumbled.
Witnesses saw Mugabe topple when he left the raised lectern at the airport on Wednesday. Press photographers said they were forced to delete images of Mugabe’s fall, however, footage obtained by The Associated Press show the president landing on his hands and knees.