diff --git a/python-dateutil.spec b/python-dateutil.spec
index 5a35a69..bfaeedf 100644
--- a/python-dateutil.spec
+++ b/python-dateutil.spec
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Name:           python-%{modname}
 Version:        2.8.1
-Release:        3%{?dist}
+Release:        4%{?dist}
 Epoch:          1
 Summary:        Powerful extensions to the standard datetime module
 
@@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ License:        BSD
 URL:            https://github.com/dateutil/dateutil
 Source:         %{pypi_source}
 
-# when bootstrapping dateutil-freezegun, we cannot run tests
-%bcond_without tests
+# Disable tests to avoid pulling in test dependencies on RHEL9
+# Specify --with tests to run the tests e.g. on EPEL
+%bcond_with tests
 
 BuildArch:      noarch
 BuildRequires: make
@@ -73,6 +74,9 @@ make -C docs html
 %doc docs/_build/html
 
 %changelog
+* Mon Mar 08 2021 Charalampos Stratakis <cstratak@redhat.com> - 1:2.8.1-4
+- Disable tests on RHEL9 to remove the test dependencies
+
 * Wed Jan 27 2021 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 1:2.8.1-3
 - Rebuilt for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_34_Mass_Rebuild