Semakaleng Mokgadi Moema (born 4 November 1984) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the

London Assembly Member The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...

for

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

since 2021.

Early life

Moema was born in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ...

to South African parents who had fled

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

in the 1970s. She attended St Michael's Catholic Grammar School and

Mahindra United World College UWC Mahindra College (sometimes known as the ''Mahindra United World College of India'', or MUWCI) is a pre-university international boarding school, located west of Pune in Maharashtra, India. The college is a two-year programme with about 25 ...

. She graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Kee ...

and a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

in Public Policy and Management from

Birkbeck, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

Political career

She was first elected as a councillor on

Hackney Council Hackney London Borough Council is the local government authority for the London Borough of Hackney, London, England, one of 32 London borough councils. The council is unusual in the United Kingdom local government system in that its executive fu ...

for Hackney Downs ward in 2006. She did not stand for re-election in the 2010 local government elections but returned to Hackney Council in a by-election 2016, again representing Hackney Downs ward. Sem was re-elected in the

2018 Hackney London Borough Council election Elections to Hackney London Borough Council took place on 3 May 2018. This was on the same day as other local elections. The Labour Party retained overall control of the council, winning 52 out of 57 seats. The party gained three seats from th ...

and in the 2022 Hackney Borough Council election. Sem is a mayoral adviser for private rented sector and housing affordability on

, in which role she introduced a licensing scheme for privately rented housing in Hackney. Following her election to the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to rejec ...

in May 2021 she was elected to serve on the Assembly's Housing, Police and Crime and Confirmation Hearings Committees. Sem is also the chair of the London Assembly's housing committee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moema, Sem Living people 21st-century British women politicians Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of Keele University Black British women politicians Councillors in the London Borough of Hackney English people of South African descent Labour Members of the London Assembly People from Islington (district) 1984 births People from Hackney, London Women councillors in England