Debora Patta (born 1 September 1964) is a South African broadcast journalist and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon a ...

investigative journalist. She was born in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally k ...

(now

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

) and has origins from Calabria,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Patta is the Africa correspondent for the American news program '' The CBS Evening News''. She has been with CBS since 2013, following her departure from the long running investigative and current affairs show, 3rd Degree with Debora Patta.

Early life

Patta was born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where her Italian father had emigrated as a railway employee. Her father was from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy and she lived there for a while when she was young. Her Italian family is originally from

Praia a Mare Praia a Mare () is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of Italy. It is a beach resort on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Geography The 2 km long beach is the main attraction for tourists. It is sandy at its northern ...

in Calabria. She considers Italy her second home and travels there regularly. She moved to South Africa with her mother, a nurse and devout Catholic, and her sister in 1976 after her parents divorced. She attended Rustenburg School for Girls in the

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

suburb of Cape Town, where she

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

in 1981. Patta studied at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

where she obtained a

Bachelor of Social Sciences The academic undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Social Science (BSS, B.Soc.Sc., or B.Soc.Sci.) requires three to four years of study in the social sciences at an institution of higher education, primarily found in the Commonwealth of Nations ...

in 1984. She briefly taught aerobics while at college.

Career

After graduating from college, Patta worked as a political activist teaching literacy in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

's squatter camps until 1990, when she started working as a freelance

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

Radio

Patta joined

Radio 702 702 is a commercial FM radio station based in Johannesburg, South Africa, broadcasting on FM 92.7 and FM 106 to the greater Gauteng province. The station is also webcast via its website. It claims to be Johannesburg's number one news and talk ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

as a reporter in 1990 and worked her way up to news

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, ...

in 1994 and special assignments editor in 1997. The first news story she worked on that was aired on Radio 702 was about the return of ANC leader

Oliver Tambo Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo (27 October 191724 April 1993) was a South African anti- apartheid politician and revolutionary who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991. Biography Higher education ...

from exile in December 1990. In 1997 and 1998, while working as news and special assignments editor for Radio 702 and its sister station

Cape Talk CapeTalk is a commercial AM radio station based in Cape Town, South Africa, broadcasting on AM/MW 567 to Cape Town. The station is also webcast via its website. It claims to be Cape Town's number one news and talk station, offering news, sport, ...

, she investigated and reported on the 1986 plane crash in which Mozambican President

Samora Machel Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambican military commander and political leader. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's ...

was killed. She received several threatening phone calls during the investigation. In June 1998 she participated in a post-apartheid

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

special hearing, providing expert opinion and assisting with questioning regarding the 1987 Helderberg plane crash and the Machel plane crash. She was later interviewed for a 2008 ''

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organi ...

'' (''Air Crash Investigation'' or ''Air Emergency'') documentary on the Helderberg plane crash. In October 2013, Patta returned to Radio 702 as a stand-in talk radio host.

Television

Patta has worked for

e.tv e.tv (commonly referred to on-air as e) is the first and only privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa. It is the fifth terrestrial television channel in the country, following three channels that are operated by the sta ...

, the first privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa, since its inception in 1998. She started as a senior

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locat ...

in Johannesburg and was subsequently appointed chief

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ...

of e.tv news. From 2000 to 2013 she was the executive producer and anchor of the weekly current affairs television programme ''3rd Degree'', a show conceptualized by her which focused on hard-hitting interviews. The final episode of ''3rd Degree'' aired on 14 May 2013. She has reported on major international stories such as the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

and the death of Princess Diana and has interviewed many notable individuals including

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...

, Oprah Winfrey,

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (AN ...

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-apart ...

Cyril Ramaphosa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician who is currently serving as the fifth democratically elected president of South Africa. Formerly an anti-apartheid activist, trade union leader, and ...

Julius Malema Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981) is a South African politician and activist who is a Member of Parliament and the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-wing party which he founded in 2013. He was formerly the President of ...

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of e.tv news in 2005. In 2009 she resigned her position as editor-in-chief, "to follow her passion for journalism" and focus on 3rd Degree. She played a key role in the launch of South Africa's first 24-hour news channel eNews Channel Africa (eNCA) by e.tv in 2008. In 2012 a puppet version of Patta voiced by Nikki Jackman was cast as co-host of the satirical television news programme ''

ZANEWS ''ZANEWS'' (now also known as ''Puppet Nation ZA'') is a South African satirical puppet show first produced in 2008 by Both Worlds, a Cape Town based production company. The show is a daily and weekly satirical news programme in the form of a mo ...

''. On 7 May 2013, e.tv and eNCA announced that Debora Patta had resigned "to pursue other interests as a freelancer for international news companies". Following her departure from

, she began working as a foreign correspondent for CBS News.

Reporting style

Patta has been described as "direct", "to the point", "unafraid" and "being a voice for the voiceless": Her hard-hitting journalism exposing racism in South Africa has angered conservative

whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

members of the public have also accused her of being

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

, e.g. after exposing corrupt black doctors who sold medical certificates and after interviewing "

bling Bling-bling, often shortened to just bling, is "flashy jewelry worn especially as an indication of wealth or status; broadly: expensive and ostentatious possessions" such as grills and designer bags. The term arose as slang, but grew into a cu ...

queen" Khanyi Mbau, and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

members of the public have accused her of being

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

after airing the controversial 2002 documentary '' Palestine Is Still the Issue''. She has also been criticized as not being qualified to talk about black culture by former

ANC Youth League The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) is the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC). As set out in its constitution, the ANC Youth League is led by a National Executive Committee (NEC) and a National Working Committee (NW ...

president

during an interview with him and by black viewers offended by a ''3rd Degree'' show on black hair weaves. AWB leader

Eugène Terre'Blanche Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche (, 31 January 1941Terre'Blanche's year of birth is alternately given as 1941 or 1944. The majority of sources indicates 1941; sources that claim 1944 as his year of birth includ''The Star''Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) is a string complaints authority established by the National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group repr ...

. In 2010 Patta publicly apologized on television to Chrisna de Kock, a

Freedom Front Plus The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus; af, Vryheidsfront Plus, ''VF Plus'') is a right-wing political party in South Africa that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Pieter Groenewald. Its current stated policy positions include a ...

youth leader at the

University of the Free State The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary se ...

, after accusing her of being a racist in an interview on ''3rd Degree''. An e.tv spokesperson conceded that "the manner in which the allegation was put across was unfortunate" and the racism comment was subsequently retracted. Patta has responded to criticism of her reporting with statements such as "that means I am doing my job well" and "we are doing this because we have a true democracy".

Personal life

In April 1995 Patta married Mweli Mzizi. The interracial couple had encountered hostility for a year, so she was surprised by the positive response of listeners to her announcement. They were married in January 1996 and the wedding was attended by hundreds of guests including Nelson Mandela. After the wedding the

Department of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

notified Mzizi that the marriage was invalid because he did not fill out a form requiring black men to say that they were not already married. ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' reported that few South Africans were aware of this requirement and "many of the country's marriages are probably illegal in the eyes of the bureaucracy". In 2000 Patta and Mzizi unsuccessfully attempted to enter a whites-only picnic resort in the Free State together, filming the incident on a hidden camera for a ''3rd Degree'' show on racism following which Patta received hate mail. Patta was voted one of the ''FHM 50 Most Eligible Women in the World'' by South African '' FHM'' readers in 2003. In June 2003 she married Lance Levitas. She has two daughters. Her elder daughter, Chiara Mzizi, has worked as a presenter for YoTV, a youth entertainment show broadcast by

SABC 1 SABC 1 is a South African public television network operated by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) which carries programming in English and Nguni. It was created in 1996, after the SABC restructured its television channels. SABC ...

, and was a student at the University of Cape Town. As of 2019, Patta lived in Johannesburg with her youngest daughter, Ella, and her partner, Andrew Levy.

Awards

Patta has won several awards: * 1992 South African Checkers Journalist of the Year * 2004 Vodacom Journalist of the Year Gauteng Region * 2004 MTN 10 Most Remarkable Women in Media * 2007 Simonsvlei Journalist Achiever of the Year * 2009 Vodacom Women in the Media * 2010 CEO Magazine South Africa's Most Influential Women in Business and Government * 2010 She received a Tricolor Globe Award from the Italian Women in the World association which recognizes outstanding achievers of Italian origin abroad. * 2015 She was part of the CBS News team nominated to receive an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for their coverage of the

Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and S ...

Publications

* ''Baby Micaela : the inside story of South Africa's most famous abduction case''. Co-authored by Anne Maggs and Debora Patta. Sandton: Zebra Press, 1996. . * ''One step behind Mandela : the story of Rory Steyn, Nelson Mandela's chief bodyguard''. Co-authored by Rory Steyn and Debora Patta. Rivonia: Zebra Press, 2000.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patta, Debora Living people South African television journalists South African television presenters University of Cape Town alumni Alumni of Rustenburg School for Girls Italian South African White South African people People of Calabrian descent South African people of Italian descent Year of birth uncertain Place of birth missing (living people) Women television journalists South African radio personalities 1964 births CBS News people South African women journalists South African women television presenters