diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 0cead4b..3f332fc 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-PACKAGE_NAME := $(shell python3 -c "import json; print(json.load(open('package.json'))['name'])")
+# extract name from package.json
+PACKAGE_NAME := $(shell awk '/"name":/ {gsub(/[",]/, "", $$2); print $$2}' package.json)
 VERSION := $(shell git describe 2>/dev/null || echo 1)
 ifeq ($(TEST_OS),)
 TEST_OS = centos-7
diff --git a/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in b/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in
index fa71de2..53e8b70 100644
--- a/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in
+++ b/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ License: LGPLv2+
 
 Source: cockpit-starter-kit-%{version}.tar.gz
 BuildArch: noarch
-BuildRequires: /usr/bin/python3
 
 %define debug_package %{nil}