Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu joined the University of Pretoria as Director and Head of the School of Public Management and Administration from 1 September 2014. She was the Executive Director of economic performance and development at the Human Sciences Research Council prior to joining the University. Chitiga-Mabugu was previously Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Pretoria. She has supervised over a dozen PhD and MSc students.

Chitiga-Mabugu obtained her PhD in Economics at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden with the research focus on the economy-wide impacts of public policies on income distribution. She conducts research in a wide variety of developmental issues. She is mainly interested in analysing the impact of policies on society and the economy at large. Chitiga-Mabugu is an NRF C1-rated researcher. She has published both locally and internationally. She has also co-authored more than 20 client research reports.

She was appointed as a Research Director for Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) for their macro modelling thematic group. She is a member of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Science Advisory Council as well as a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF). She is Vice President and Council Member of the African Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AFAERE). She is co-chair of the Climate Action for Jobs (CA4J) Initiative.