Roman’s Pizza must publicly apologise and pay R200,000 to a Durban family for refusing them a licence to operate a halaal franchise of the pizza chain because they were not Muslim. The Equality Court in Pretoria ruled last week that Roman's Pizza discriminated unfairly against the Neerputh family, who are Hindu.Anak Neerputh, his wife Kaskumarie and their daughter Nalika approached Roman’s Pizza in May 2012 with a business proposal to acquire a franchise outlet in a newly built Pick n Pay Centre in Chatsworth, Durban.In August 2012, Roman’s Pizza confirmed that the Neerpuths were prospective franchisees and asked them to write a letter of intent and pay a joining fee of R70 000.However, following months of communication between the two parties and after a business plan was developed and the family was taken to various pizza outlets in Pretoria to be introduced as Chatsworth franchisees, the pizza chain changed its tune and wanted nothing to do with the family.This after the family enquired about halaal certification and upon learning that they were not Muslim, Roman’s Pizza chief executive John Nicolakakis told the family that "that would be a problem".In 2013, Nicolakakis informed the Neerpuths in an e-mail that the store they sought to acquire was re-allocated and that the franchise insisted on Muslim operators for its halaal outlets.The family then took the pizza chain to court, arguing that they were unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of their religion.The family said their "dignity as Hindus" was undermined.Roman’s Pizza argued that there was no discrimination and that it was not easy to get accreditation from the South African National Halaal Authority (SANHA) if one was not Muslim.SANHA did not responded to a request for comment.The court found that there had been unfair discrimination because "had [the Neerpuths] been Muslim, they would not be denied this [business] opportunity".The court said: “…the conduct and policy of [Roman's Pizza] had the insidious effect of implying that non-Muslims cannot be trusted to run a halaal franchise outlet. The impact of the exclusion and denial of this opportunity to non-Muslims on his or her right to dignity is that non-Muslims are less deserving of respect than Muslims.”Nicolakakis said Roman's Pizza will appeal.“We are horrified by the judgment. We don’t feel it was fair,” he said.Anak Neeputh said the family was overjoyed.Neerputh said they were no longer interested in operating a Roman’s Pizza franchise because “the turn of events dampened our spirits”...