Debora Patta

Debora Patta is a CBS News outside correspondent based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He joined CBS News in 2013 and has reported on major international stories across the continent, including the Ebola outbreak, the abduction of schoolchildren by Boko Haram and the famine in South Sudan. It reports on all CBS News broadcasts and platforms, including CBS Evening News, CBS Mornings, and the CBS News Streaming Network, CBS News’ leading 24/7 streaming news service.

Since joining CBS News, Patta has also reported throughout the Middle East and Europe, including the bombing of a Syrian children’s hospital, the fall of Aleppo and terrorist attacks in Brussels, France and Spain.

Patta, who wrote a book about Nelson Mandela in 2000, was a senior CBS News correspondent after his death, offering coverage on the ground of his funeral and celebration of his life and impact on South Africa. Patta also reported from Liberia during the Ebola crisis, where half of the Ebola cases in the world were located.

Patta has also reported extensively from conflict zones in Niger, Somalia and Cameroon. He reported from Niger after Islamic militants ambushed U.S. and Nigerian soldiers, leaving four dead. Patta’s reports on cobalt mining children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo garnered strong support from CBS News viewers who donated money to send children to school.

Patta also reported on enslaved children in the fishing industry in Ghana. He has also addressed the effects of climate change on the African continent by looking at plastic pollution and the second-hand clothing industry, reporting on how our discarded fashion items end up in landfills halfway around the world.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Patta reported on how the virus spread across the African continent and investigated vaccine inequality. She was the first international correspondent to visit the lab where the new Omicron variant was identified shortly after scientists announced their discovery to the world.

Patta began her career in South Africa, reporting for BBC Radio. In 1990 he joined a Johannesburg radio station and became known for his coverage of Mandela during his election campaign to become South Africa’s first black president. Mandela called her “his favorite journalist.” In 1998 she moved to the independent television channel e.tv, became its editor-in-chief and later launched the country’s first 24-hour television channel. Patta was also the host and executive producer of “Third Degree,” a current research program, for 13 years and was known for conducting hard, thorough interviews.

Patta is an award-winning journalist, having been named Vodacom Media Woman of the Year, the most influential woman in the media in South Africa and the woman in the world in Italy, and was one of the leading women in the media. MTN Communication. He has also received an Edward R. Murrow Award; an NABJ Health to Excellence Award; and a Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

She is also the author and enthusiast of the exercise, having reached the top of Kilimanjaro and running a New York City marathon.

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