The Southern African Relief Fund (SARF) was established by Decree 5 of 1977 following the June 1976 Soweto uprising, on the initiative of General Murtala Muhammed and continued under Obasanjo. Federal civil servants were asked to surrender 2 % of their February 1977 salaries (1 % from junior staff); state governments, parastatals and private corporations matched the contribution. The Fund operated through the Ministry of External Affairs Liberation Committee Desk and disbursed grants to the ANC (London and Lusaka offices), SWAPO (Luanda HQ), the PAC, ZANU and ZAPU.
The popular name 'Mandela Tax' is a later coinage — Mandela was on Robben Island for the entire active life of the Fund. Documented disbursements include scholarships at Nigerian universities for ANC and SWAPO cadres (the OAU Scholarship Programme administered through ABU, UNN and UNILAG, ~300 students 1977–1990), the 1977 charter flight of Frelimo and SWAPO delegates to FESTAC, ANC office rentals in Lagos and London, and emergency airlifts to ZANU-PF guerrillas during the 1979 Lancaster House negotiations.
Cumulative SARF disbursements to 1994 are estimated by Adebajo (2008) at US$61 million in nominal terms — making Nigeria the largest non-Frontline-State funder of the Southern African liberation movements. Mandela's first overseas visit after release was to Lagos in May 1990; his 1999 Order of the Federal Republic citation explicitly named SARF. The Fund was wound up in 1994 after the South African elections. See South Africa relations, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola.