Debora Patta Profile
Debora Patta is a South African award-winning broadcast journalist and television producer and investigative journalist working for CBS. She joined CBS News in the year 2013.
Debora Patta Career
Patta serves at CBS as a CBS News Foreign Correspondent based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has written on big news reports around the continent, including the outbreak of Ebola, the abduction of schoolgirls by Boko Haram, and the drought in South Sudan. It reports on all CBS News broadcasts and channels, including CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, and CBSN, CBS News 24/7 digital news channel.
Since joining CBS News, Patta has also covered the Middle East and Europe, including the bombing of the Syrian Children’s Hospital, the collapse of Aleppo, and militant attacks in Brussels, France, and Spain. Patta, who wrote a book on Nelson Mandela in 2000, was the chief reporter of CBS News after his death, presenting on-the-ground coverage of his funeral and celebrating his life and its effect on South Africa. She also reported from Liberia during the Ebola crisis, where half of the cases of Ebola were worldwide.
Patta has reported widely from war zones in Niger, Somalia, and Cameroon. She announced from Niger that Islamic militants had ambushed U.S. and Nigerian troops, leaving four Americans dead. Patta’s story on infant cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo caused an outpouring of support from CBS News viewers who pledged money to send children to kindergarten.
Patta started her career in South Africa, contributing to BBC Radio. In 1990, she joined the Johannesburg talk radio station and became well known for her coverage of Mandela during his election bid to become South Africa’s first black president. Mandela used to call her “his favorite journalist.”
In 1998, she moved to the independent free-to-air TV station e.tv, becoming its editor-in-chief, and then launched the country’s first 24-hour TV channel. Patta has also been the host and executive producer of “Third Degree” for 13 years—an observational current affairs program—and has been known to perform tough and detailed interviews.
Quick Facts About Debora Patta
| Age | 57 years old as of 2021 |
| Nationality | South African |
| Spouse | Mweli Mzizi |
| Net Worth | $1 million – $5 Million |
Patta is an award-winning journalist named Vodacom Media Woman of the Year, South Africa’s Most Prominent Women in Media, Italy’s Women of the Year, and one of MTN’s Outstanding Women in Media. She is also the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award, the NABJ Salute To Achievement Award, and the Scripps Howard Award for Broadcasting Excellence. She is also the author and fitness lover of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the New York City Marathon.
Debora Patta Age
Patta was born on 1 September 1964 in Southern Rhodesia (she is 57 years old as of 2021.) She celebrates her birthday on the 1st of September every year.
Debora Patta Height
Patta stands at an approximate height of 5 feet 5 inches.
Debora Patta Family
Patta’s father is Italian and he had emigrated as a train worker. Her father was from Rome, Italy, and she had been living there for a while when she was young. Her Italian family was originally from Praia a Mare, Calabria. She finds Italy to be her second home and flies there frequently. She moved to South Africa with her mum, a Catholic nurse, and her sister after her parents had separated.
Debora Patta Husband and children
Patta married Mweli Mzizi in April 1996. The interracial couple had been contentious for a year, so she was shocked by the supportive reaction of the listeners to her announcement. They were married in January 1996 and hundreds of guests attended the wedding, including Nelson Mandela. After the marriage, the Ministry of Home Affairs told Mzizi that the marriage was void because he did not fill out a questionnaire asking black men to state that they had not already been married.
Newsweek recorded that few South Africans were aware of this provision, and that “many of the country’s marriages are probably illegal in the eyes of the bureaucracy” She married Lance Levitas in June 2003. She’s got, two daughters. Her eldest daughter, Chiara Mzizi, has worked as a host for YoTV, a youth entertainment program broadcast by SABC 1. She has a younger daughter, Ella.
Debora Patta Salary
Being one of the top journalists for CBS, Patta earns an annual salary ranging from $ 20,000 – $ 100,000.
Debora Patta’s Net Worth
Patta has an estimated net worth of between $1 Million – $5 Million which she has earned through her successful career as a journalist.
Debora Patta CBS News
At CBS News Patta works alongside;
- Jeffrey Pegues
- Jamie Yuccas
- Susan Zirinsky
- Mireya Villarreal
- Bill Whitaker
- Holly Williams
- Omar Villafranca
- Peter Van Sant
- Imtiaz Tyab
- Jonathan Vigliotti
- Tracy Smith
- Susan Spencer
- Bob Schieffer
- Serena Altschul