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Robert Mugabe has suspended no fewer than 27 bodyguards for failing to stop his embarrassing fall down podium steps, sources have claimed.

The 90-year-old Zimbabwe President was caught on camera taking a tumble after addressing supporters at Harare Airport last week.

His security team scrambled to help him to his feet and desperately tried to brush over it by purportedly forcing photographers to delete their pictures of the incident.

But it failed to stop social media users having their fun at the dictator's expense with a series of hilarious memes.

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo later tried to claim that there was also no evidence that Mugabe had actually tripped over, but instead had 'managed to break the fall'.

It has now been reported that 27 members of his security team were suspended on Friday pending an official investigation.

An official source told Zimbabwe's The Standard: '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. The issue here is simple. The security team was caught napping.'

The source claimed the bodyguards 'failed to adhere to basics' by not standing within three feet of the President.

'These are the bullet-takers and in cases where he falls they are supposed to hold him either by the arm or by the shoulder and should never take their eyes off him,' the official added.  

Presidential spokesman George Charamba has denied any suggestions of a shake-up.

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However, a number a new bodyguards were reportedly seen with Mugabe at a meeting on Friday.

Mugabe had been talking to the crowd at Harare International Airport, who had gathered to welcome him back from a trip to Ethiopia - where he had been elected chairman of the 54-state African Nation.   

It is understood the President - who has overseen his once-prosperous nation's steep decline since starting to seize white-owned farms in 2000 - was helped up quickly by aides, before being whisked away in his waiting limousine. 

Source: Dailymail.co.uk