The mentorship programme in the school of education of a South African university shows what is possible in peer mentor leadership development. Through the analysis of first-year student mentees’ perceptions, experiences, and assessment of their peer mentors’ roles, and accounts of the mentors’ review of their role in the mentorship programme, this paper examines ways the peer mentor role opens spaces for enacting leadership and indirectly scaffolding leadership development. The study used a qualitative approach and a case study design. Data was collected using semi-structured interview, focus group discussion, and document analysis. The data was analysed applying the theoretical lens of implicit leadership theory. Three categories of findings were made: first, both mentees and mentors see the role of the peer mentor as primarily involving leadership, which is important to mentoring outcomes. Second, the peer mentors understand their role as including the activities of a leader, which entails opportunity for leadership development. Third, peer mentees and mentors are not ignorant of their needs. They make sense of these needs while characterizing their expectations as mentee and mentor in the mentoring relationship. These findings reveal that though non-systemic issues in academic development practices in this context detract mentoring outcomes, peer mentoring fosters leadership development of the student peer mentors.