Debora Patta Biography
Debora Patta is a South African correspondent, host, investigative journalist, and producer working for CBS News. She joined the network in 2013 following her departure from the long-running investigative and current affairs show, 3rd Degree with Debora Patta.
Debora Patta Education
Patta attended Rustenburg School for Girls where she earned her Diploma. From there, she joined the University of Cape Town in the Rondebosch suburb of Cape Town, where she matriculated in 1981. After completing her studies there, she obtained a Bachelor of Social Sciences in 1984. While there, she briefly taught aerobics.
Debora Patta Career
Patta is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has reported on major international stories across the continent including the famine in South Sudan, the kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram, and also the Ebola outbreak. Patta reports for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms, including the “CBS Evening News,” “CBS Mornings,” and the CBS News Streaming Network, CBS News’ premier 24/7 anchored streaming news service.
During her tenure at CBS News, she has reported across Europe and the Middle East including terror attacks in Brussels, France, and Spain, the fall of Aleppo, and the bombing of a Syrian children’s hospital. She provided Mandela’s on-the-ground coverage of his funeral and celebration of his life and impact on South Africa. In addition to that, she reported from Liberia during the Ebola crisis.
She reported extensively from conflict zones in Cameroon, Somalia, and Niger. In Niger, she covered Islamic militants ambushed U.S. and Nigerian soldiers, leaving four Americans dead. She also on child cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo prompted an outpouring of support from CBS News viewers who donated money to send children to school and also on child slaves in the fishing industry in Ghana.
In addition to her reporting, she covered the second-hand clothing industry, reporting on how our discarded fashion items end up on dump sites halfway around the world. She also the effects of climate change on the African continent by looking at plastic pollution. Furthermore, she reported on how the COVID-19 virus spread across the African continent and investigated vaccine inequality. Patta was the first international correspondent to visit the lab where the new variant of Omicron was identified shortly after scientists announced its discovery to the world.
Her journalism career began reporting for BBC Radio in South Africa. She joined a Johannesburg talk radio station in 1990. Patta covered Mandela during his election campaign to become South Africa’s first black president. She was Mandela’s favorite journalist. In 1998, she moved to the independent free-to-air television station e.tv. While there, she served as editor-in-chief and later launched the country’s first 24-hour TV channel.
Debora Patta Age
Patta is 58 years old as o 2022. She was born on September 1, 1964, in Southern Rhodesia (Current Zimbabwe). Patta 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 was born and raised in Zimbabwe where her Italian father had emigrated as a railway employee. Patta’s father was from Rome, Italy and she lived there for a while when she was young. She considers Italy her second home and travels there regularly. In 1976, she moved to South Africa with her mother, a nurse, and devout Catholic, and her sister after her parents divorced.
Debora Patta Husband
Patta was married to Mweli Mzizi from January 1996 to 2002 and the wedding was attended by hundreds of guests including Nelson Mandela. After the wedding, the Department of Home Affairs 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.
Despite the ups and downs that they had faced, the couple divorced in 2002. On June 28, 2003, she married Lance Levitas. The small ceremony of about 30 family members and close friends took place at a villa in Rome, Italy. In addition to her personal life, she remarried again. In 2012, she married Andrew (Surfer-boy) Levy.
She has two daughters, Chiara Mzizi and Ella. Chiara is a proud graduate of the University of Cape Town. She has worked as a presenter for YoTV, a youth entertainment show broadcast by SABC 1. Currently, she resides in Johannesburg with her daughter, Ella, and her husband, Andrew
Debora Patta Net Worth
Patta has an estimated net worth ranging between $1 Million – $5 Million which she has earned from her successful career as a correspondent, host, investigative journalist, and producer.
Debora Patta Salary
Patta earns an annual salary ranging between $40,000 – $ 110,500.
Awards
Patta is an award-winning journalist, having been named Vodacom Media Woman of the Year, South Africa’s Most Influential Woman in Media, and Italy’s Woman of the World, and she was one of MTN’s Outstanding Women in Media. She is also the recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award; an NABJ Salute to Excellence award; and a Scripps Howard award for broadcast excellence.
Author
Apart from her journalism career, she is also an author. She wrote a book on Nelson Mandela after his death in 2000. Patta is an exercise enthusiast, having summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. She also ran a New York City marathon.
Debora Patta CBS News
Patta works at CBS News where he works alongside other famous CBS News anchors, reporters, meteorologists, and sports anchors including;
- John Dickerson
- Seth Doane
- Tony Dokoupil
- Jericka Duncan
- Vladimir Duthiers
- Carter Evans
- Pamela Falk
- Major Garrett
- Jeff Glor
- Catherine Herridge
- Caitlin Huey-Burns
- Ramy Inocencio
- Dana Jacobson
- Gayle King
- Ian Lee
- Lilia Luciano
- Michelle Miller
- Erin Moriarty
- Ed O’Keefe
- Meg Oliver