20 Facts About Debora Patta

Debora Patta was born on 1 September 1964 and is a South African investigative broadcast journalist and television producer.

Debora Patta was born in Southern Rhodesia and has origins from Calabria, Italy.

Debora Patta has been with CBS since 2013, following her departure from the long running investigative and current affairs show, 3rd Degree with Debora Patta.

Debora Patta was born in Southern Rhodesia, where her Italian father had emigrated as a railway employee.

Debora Patta's father was from Rome, Italy and she lived there for a while when she was young.

Debora Patta considers Italy her second home and travels there regularly.

Debora Patta moved to South Africa with her mother, a nurse and devout Catholic, and her sister in 1976 after her parents divorced.

Debora Patta attended Rustenburg School for Girls in the Rondebosch suburb of Cape Town, where she matriculated in 1981.

Debora Patta studied at the University of Cape Town where she obtained a Bachelor of Social Sciences in 1984.

Debora Patta joined Radio 702 in Johannesburg as a reporter in 1990 and worked her way up to news editor in 1994 and special assignments editor in 1997.

Debora Patta received several threatening phone calls during the investigation.

Debora Patta was later interviewed for a 2008 Mayday documentary on the Helderberg plane crash.

In October 2013, Debora Patta returned to Radio 702 as a stand-in talk radio host.

In 2012, a puppet version of Debora Patta voiced by Nikki Jackman was cast as co-host of the satirical television news programme ZANEWS.

Debora Patta has been called names and is often described as aggressive, but it doesn't seem to bother her much.

Debora Patta has been criticized as not being qualified to talk about black culture by former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema during an interview with him and by black viewers offended by a 3rd Degree show on black hair weaves.

In 2010, Debora Patta publicly apologized on television to Chrisna de Kock, a Freedom Front Plus youth leader at the University of the Free State, after accusing her of being a racist in an interview on 3rd Degree.

Debora 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".

Debora Patta was voted one of the FHM 50 Most Eligible Women in the World by South African FHM readers in 2003.

Debora Patta's elder daughter, Chiara Mzizi, has worked as a presenter for YoTV, a youth entertainment show broadcast by SABC 1, and was a student at the University of Cape Town.