Thousands have turned out to wish happy birthday to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who threw 90 balloons into the air to mark his 90th year and continuing hold on power.
Fresh off the plane from Singapore, where the nonogenarian president had travelled for eye surgery, Mugabe arrived early at Marondera stadium to start his birthday celebrations.
Dressed in a black suit, red tie and white shirt, he moved around the venue on the back of a truck waving his fist to a crowd made up largely of school children bussed in for the occasion.
Mugabe told the crowd that the election win for his Zanu-PF party last year had confounded his critics in the West.
"Those opponents of ours who had imposed sanctions on us were baffled," he said.
"The truth is Zanu-PF won, Zanu-PF had the support. Zanu-PF had the message, had the history, Zanu-PF has the people."
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist ever since the former rebel led the country to independence from Britain in 1980.
His party won another resounding victory in August - taking two-thirds of the vote - although critics say he used state power to intimidate voters and opponents.
Huge cakes were on display in the centre of the stadium, while the crowd wore red scarves, as is traditional on the president's birthday, and waved national flags.
A series of speakers led the crowd in chanting Zanu-PF slogans, and denouncing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which has spent years unsuccessfully trying to overturn Mugabe's rule in the face of catastrophic economic decline.
Mugabe returned to familiar anti-colonial themes in his speech, saying: "The British - we don't hate you, we only love our country. We love our freedom."
Senior government officials, security chiefs and Mugabe's children were also among the well-wishers on Sunday.
