The tragic Zimbabwe politics

As the Zimbabwean elections came and passed, Mugabe once again gained absolute power by preventing not only the opposition parties but his own lieutenants who are purportedly leading various factions in ZANU (PF) from challenging the balance of power.  
One important lesson that the opposition politicians must come out of these elections with is that politics is not the same as emotions. Politics is a science where leaders learn and understand strategies of survival. In politics, an aspirant needs to be strategic and not emotional. An aspirant must have plan of taking power and needs control of at least one key institution of the state to challenge the balance of power.
These levers of power are the security forces, the civil service, the media, the judiciary, the electoral commission, and Finance. Considering this reality, the opposition in Zimbabwe had no chance of gaining power from ZANU (PF). It would have been a first.
After effectively dealing with the opposition, Mugabe had no incentives of reaching out to the opposition since the opposition has zero chance of upsetting the balance of power. What he Mugabe was worried about were the purported factionalism in his own party if any exists.
Assigning all the key institutions of the state to one purported factional leader and his/her protégés would have send a very clear signal but one that could lead to aggression that could be difficult to control. By keeping the security institution under his leadership, Mugabe sent a very clear signal that he has no intentions of stepping down as was reported before the elections.
The way he parceled the other key state institutions is a strategy called "Balancing "in political science.  The media, judiciary, and Finance are all controlled by the purported Ngwena faction. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chairperson is appointed by the President after consultation with the judicial service commission. The other purported faction got the Civil Service.
A closer look at Mugabe's balancing act shows that even though he maintained the security institution, he strategically put a neutral figure to head the defense forces. If media reports are to be believed, Sydney Sekeramayi has a soft heart for the purported Mujuru faction but most interestingly, it is reported he has ambitions of his own.
While it looks from the emotional point of view that the purported Mujuru faction had more appointments to cabinet; the purported Ngwena faction controls the majority institutions that are regarded levers of power. However, Ngwena would not ascend to the position of power without the nod from Sekeramayi if anything was to happen to Mugabe. Mujuru cannot ascend to the position of power without the cooperation of Ngwena who controls the Judiciary of the country. This is the tragic Zimbabwe politics we have to live with.