diff --git a/package/setools/Config.in b/package/setools/Config.in
index b26029a162..3ab7f55948 100644
--- a/package/setools/Config.in
+++ b/package/setools/Config.in
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_SETOOLS
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
 	depends on BR2_USE_WCHAR
 	depends on BR2_USE_MMU
-	depends on BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON3 # python-networkx
+	depends on BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON3
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_NETWORKX # runtime
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_SETUPTOOLS
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBSELINUX
diff --git a/package/setools/setools.mk b/package/setools/setools.mk
index 24da3613c4..c1a3a909cb 100644
--- a/package/setools/setools.mk
+++ b/package/setools/setools.mk
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ SETOOLS_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
 SETOOLS_LICENSE = GPL-2.0+, LGPL-2.1+
 SETOOLS_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING COPYING.GPL COPYING.LGPL
 SETOOLS_SETUP_TYPE = setuptools
-HOST_SETOOLS_DEPENDENCIES = host-python-cython host-libselinux host-libsepol host-python-networkx
+HOST_SETOOLS_DEPENDENCIES = host-python3-cython host-libselinux host-libsepol host-python-networkx
+HOST_SETOOLS_NEEDS_HOST_PYTHON = python3
 
 define SETOOLS_FIX_SETUP
 	# By default, setup.py will look for libsepol.a in the host machines