Zimbabwe President Trips on Carpet, Punishes 27 Bodyguards

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was caught on camera, when he fell to his knees after tripping himself on the red carpet. The carpet meant to greet the arrival of the President, had been laid out on a flight of stairs during his welcome back trip from Ethiopia at the Harare International airport.

The embarrassing incident, which happened in the presence of media personnel, forced the 90 year dictator's entourage to scramble towards the photographers, in an effort to get them to delete the images. It was felt that the incident would have highlighted the President's advanced age even though he is actually 'fit as two fiddles.'

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo also made an interesting observation to put things in a better context. He maintained that even someone like 'Jesus' would have tripped himself on such a poorly laid out carpet while on the other hand, President Mugabe managed to 'break the fall on his own.'

Several bodyguards in charge of President Mugabe's protection detail were suspended because they did not react swiftly to help their leader. The incident led to the launch of an official investigation resulting in the suspension of 27 security agents.

While the Zimbabwe government denied any changes in the security staff, several new agents were spotted during President Mugabe's meeting with his counterpart Edgar Lungu from Zambia.

One of the sources present at the scene said, "The issue here is simple. The security team was caught napping. There are many departments that are being investigated, from Air Zimbabwe, the advance team and the security. I doubt if some of them will come back."