Debora Patta | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1964-09-01)1 September 1964 (age 60) |
| Nationality | South Africa |
| Alma mater | University of Cape Town |
| Occupation(s) | Broadcast journalist,television producer,radio personality |
| Years active | 1990– |
| Spouses | |
| Partner | Andrew Levy[1] (2012–) |
| Children | 2 |
Debora Patta (born 1 September 1964)[2] is a South African investigativebroadcast journalist andtelevision producer.[3][4][5] She was born inSouthern Rhodesia (nowZimbabwe) and has origins fromCalabria,Italy.[6][7][8]
Patta is the Africa correspondent for the American news programThe CBS Evening News.[9] She has been with CBS since 2013, following her departure from the long running investigative and current affairs show, 3rd Degree with Debora Patta.[10]
Patta was born in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe since 1980), where herItalian father had emigrated as a railway employee. Her father was fromRome, Italy and she lived there for a while when she was young. Her Italian family is originally fromPraia a Mare in Calabria. She considers Italy her second home and travels there regularly.[3][4][5][11]
She moved to South Africa with her mother, a nurse and devout Catholic, and her sister in 1976 after her parents divorced.[5][11] She attendedRustenburg School for Girls in theRondebosch suburb of Cape Town, where shematriculated in 1981.[12][13]
Patta studied at theUniversity of Cape Town where she obtained aBachelor of Social Sciences in 1984.[12][14] She briefly taught aerobics while at college.[11]
After graduating from college, Patta worked as a political activist teaching literacy inCape Town's squatter camps until 1990, when she started working as a freelancereporter for theBBC.[11][12][15][16]
Patta joinedRadio 702 inJohannesburg as a reporter in 1990 and worked her way up to newseditor in 1994 and special assignments editor in 1997.[12][15]
The first news story she worked on that was aired on Radio 702 was about the return ofANC leaderOliver Tambo from exile in December 1990.[14]
In 1997 and 1998, while working as news and special assignments editor forRadio 702 and its sister stationCape Talk, she investigated and reported on the1986 plane crash in whichMozambican PresidentSamora Machel was killed.[17] She received several threatening phone calls during the investigation.[18] In June 1998 she participated in a post-apartheidTruth and Reconciliation Commission special hearing, providing expert opinion and assisting with questioning regarding the1987 Helderberg plane crash and the Machel plane crash.[19] She was later interviewed for a 2008Mayday (Air Crash Investigation orAir Emergency) documentary on the Helderberg plane crash.[20]
In October 2013, Patta returned to Radio 702 as a stand-in talk radio host.[21]
Patta has worked fore.tv, the first privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa, since its inception in 1998. She started as a seniorcorrespondent in Johannesburg and was subsequently appointed chiefanchor of e.tv news.[18][22][23][24]
From 2000 to 2013, she was the executive producer and anchor of the weekly current affairs television programme3rd Degree, a show conceptualized by her which focused on hard-hitting interviews.[25][26][27][28] The final episode of3rd Degree aired on 14 May 2013.[29]
She has reported on major international stories such as theSeptember 11 attacks and thedeath of Princess Diana and has interviewed many notable individuals includingShimon Peres,Oprah Winfrey,Nelson Mandela,Thabo Mbeki,Jacob Zuma,Cyril Ramaphosa,Julius Malema,Eugène Terre'Blanche andRobert McBride.[3][7][30]
She was appointededitor-in-chief of e.tv news in 2005.[31][32] In 2009 she resigned her position as editor-in-chief, "to follow her passion for journalism" and focus on 3rd Degree.[26][30]
She played a key role in the launch of South Africa's first 24-hour news channeleNews Channel Africa (eNCA) by e.tv in 2008.[33][34]
In 2012, a puppet version of Patta voiced byNikki Jackman was cast as co-host of thesatirical television news programmeZANEWS.[35][36]
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".[37][38]
Following her departure frome.tv, she began working as a foreign correspondent forCBS News.[39]
Patta has been described as "direct", "to the point", "unafraid" and "being a voice for the voiceless":[40][41]
South Africans know her best as the hard-core investigative reporter who ruthlessly rips into everyone from crooked cabinet ministers to medical doctors on the take.
— Louise Liebenberg,The Herald[3]
Patta has been called names and is often described as aggressive, but it doesn't seem to bother her much.
— Bongiwe Khumalo,Times Live[42]
Her hard-hitting journalism exposing racism in South Africa has angered conservativewhites.Black members of the public have also accused her of beingracist, e.g. after exposing corrupt black doctors who sold medical certificates and after interviewing "bling queen"Khanyi Mbau, andJewish members of the public have accused her of beinganti-Semitic after airing the controversial 2002 documentaryPalestine Is Still the Issue.[18][43][44][45]
She has also been criticized as not being qualified to talk about black culture by formerANC Youth League presidentJulius Malema during an interview with him and by black viewers offended by a3rd Degree show on blackhair weaves.[46][47]
AWB leaderEugène Terre'Blanche walked out of an interview with Patta after his release from prison in 2004. A complaint lodged against e.tv about the interview was dismissed by theBroadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa.[42][48]
In 2010, Patta publicly apologized on television to Chrisna de Kock, aFreedom Front Plus youth leader at theUniversity of the Free State, after accusing her of being a racist in an interview on3rd 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.[49][50]
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".[18][46]
In April 1995, Patta married Mweli Mzizi.[4][13] The interracial couple had encountered hostility for a year, so she was surprised by the positive response of listeners to her announcement.[51] They were married in January 1996 and the wedding was attended by hundreds of guests including Nelson Mandela.[4] After the wedding theDepartment 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.Newsweek 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".[52]
In 2000, Patta and Mzizi unsuccessfully attempted to enter a whites-only picnic resort in theFree State together, filming the incident on a hidden camera for a3rd Degree show on racism following which Patta received hate mail.[11][53]
Patta was voted one of theFHM 50 Most Eligible Women in the World by South AfricanFHM readers in 2003.[27][54]
In June 2003, she married Lance Levitas.[13][55]
She has two daughters.[5][7][8] Her elder daughter, Chiara Mzizi, has worked as a presenter for YoTV, a youth entertainment show broadcast bySABC 1, and was a student at the University of Cape Town.[56][1]
As of 2019, Patta lived in Johannesburg with her youngest daughter, Ella, and her partner, Andrew Levy.[1]
Patta has won several awards:
Debora, 'a very proud South African'
e' nata 31 anni fa nella Rhodesia, dove papa' era emigrato come impiegato delle ferrovie e aveva fatto carriera. Poi la separazione dei genitori, il trasferimento con la madre in Sudafrica, il ritorno del padre a Roma, la cittadinanza sudafricana
En nou, op 45, is dit tyd om minder baas en meer ma te wees.
la giornalista investigativa più famosa in Sudafrica, di origine calabrese ma nata in Zimbabwe, Debora Patta
1990 marked her first foray into journalism working as a production assistant for the BBC.
Sy het aan die begin van die jaar die tydskrif FHM se lysie gehaal van die mees hubare vroue in die land.
She is editor-in-chief for both e.tv and e.24, the cable news channel which launched its 24-hour news station in June 2008.
They chose Debora because she's good TV.
Van die kriteria is dat hulle geld en bekende vriende moet hê en intelligent moet wees.
