Pioneer: Is Mzo Daphula the first music student to be elected to the SRC in over 100 years? The third-year opera singer believes he is.

Mzo Daphula, sports co-ordinator for the 2007/2008 Student Representative Council, believes he is a pioneer.

After some digging among records and archives, the third-year opera singer is convinced he's the first music student to be elected to the SRC.

The student from De Aar suggests that the South African College of Music's location might have something to do with it.

"Music students tend not to mingle with students on upper campus."

This 'isolation' may have cut them off from mainstream issues, including running for the Student Representative Council.

Daphula himself is no stranger to the cut and thrust of student politics - and making his voice heard, in a non-musical way. He was on the Learner Representative Council at high school in Secunda, Mpumalanga (where SACM rising stars Pretty Yende and Given Nkosi hail from), and a good debater.

Naturally, he sang in the school choir. He's a lyrical tenor (he can hit the high D) whose favourite role is Rodolfo in La Bohème.

"I hope to sing that in the next 20 years, when my voice matures."

He was also deputy head student and security representative for Liesbeeck Gardens.

"I could be a trend-setter."