diff --git a/bin/pungi-koji b/bin/pungi-koji
index 049eeaab..38e2fcf3 100755
--- a/bin/pungi-koji
+++ b/bin/pungi-koji
@@ -27,7 +27,11 @@ from pungi import get_full_version, util
 
 
 # force C locales
-locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "C.UTF-8")
+try:
+    locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "C.UTF-8")
+except locale.Error:
+    # RHEL < 8 does not have C.UTF-8 locale...
+    locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "C")
 
 
 COMPOSE = None