His African National Congress, which has ruled, unbroken, for 27 years, is facing its toughest test yet at the ballot box.
Analysts predict the ANC could be heading for its worst result - slipping below 50% vote share for the first time and shaking its dominance of South African politics.
The ANC's 1994 rise to power drew a line under a history of racist oppression by the descendants of white settlers.
But critics, and voters like Richard, say they've proved less effective at mundane tasks like fixing drains, supplying clean water and keeping the lights on.
"We need the government to build RDP houses, and we need the water facilities we need electricity. That is our daily bread."
The ANC is battling against main rival the Democratic Alliance, which has struggled to shed its image as a party of white privilege, as well ActionSA, a moderate newcomer, and the Economic Freedom Fighters - the Marxist group of former ANC youth leader Julius Malema.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to make service delivery a priority.
"We have realised that we have not always met the aspirations of our people. We are going to do better."
The ANC's defenders say reversing decades of apartheid-era neglect in Black neighborhoods was never going to be a quick fix.
But the party has also been dogged by corruption scandals and faces criticism over some of the world's highest recorded unemployment.
A third of the population is out of work.
Analysts say getting less than half the vote would be a psychological blow - and raises the previously unthinkable prospect that the ANC could, one day, find itself in opposition.
