Zimbabwean state media and spin doctors have rushed to defend 90-year-old President Robert Mugabe's honour after he fell from a staircase, saying "even Jesus" would have tripped under the circumstances.
Mugabe missed a step as he walked off a podium on Wednesday at Harare International Airport, where he was addressing supporters after returning from Ethiopia where he was elected African Union chairman last week.
"President Mugabe yesterday tripped over a poorly laid-out carpet at Harare International Airport, but remarkably managed to break the fall before walking to his car, evidently unscathed," The Herald newspaper reported on Thursday.
Information minister and spin doctor Jonathan Moyo told the paper that Mugabe's fall was not news as anyone - "even Jesus" - could have tripped in that situation.
"The misrepresentations and morbid celebrations of the incident by malcontents is the real news here and not the alleged fall as there was none," Moyo was quoted as saying by The Herald.
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"What happened is that the president tripped over a hump on the carpet on one of the steps of the dais as he was stepping down from the platform, but he remarkably managed to break the fall. I repeat the President managed to break the fall."
"And to be honest with you, even Jesus, let alone you, would have also tripped in that kind of situation," Moyo said.
Some local journalists claimed they were forced to delete photos of the veteran leader's fall from their cameras by security agents on the scene.
But some images slipped into the public realm and became fodder for never-ending jokes ridiculing Africa's oldest leader.
Photoshopped pictures of Mugabe in the middle of dance floors or pulling a twirl alongside Rihanna went viral on Twitter on Thursday.
Others caricatured him as being charged by a rhino or chased by a baton-wielding Zimbabwean policeman.
