diff --git a/scripts/bootstrap-ansible.sh b/scripts/bootstrap-ansible.sh
index d2409a3b26..6518dcbc80 100755
--- a/scripts/bootstrap-ansible.sh
+++ b/scripts/bootstrap-ansible.sh
@@ -74,10 +74,11 @@ case ${DISTRO_ID} in
     centos|rhel)
         dnf -y install \
           git curl autoconf gcc gcc-c++ nc \
-          python3 python3-devel libselinux-python3 \
+          python38 python38-devel libselinux-python3 \
           systemd-devel pkgconf \
           openssl-devel libffi-devel \
           rsync wget
+        PYTHON_EXEC_PATH="$(which python3.8)"
         ;;
     ubuntu|debian)
         apt-get update
diff --git a/scripts/scripts-library.sh b/scripts/scripts-library.sh
index ae0e10fb9f..c76886475b 100755
--- a/scripts/scripts-library.sh
+++ b/scripts/scripts-library.sh
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ function build_ansible_runtime_venv {
     # - Ubuntu Xenial has 15.0.1, holding pip 8.1.1, setuptools 20.3, wheel 0.29
     #   See also: https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/python-virtualenv
 
-    python3 -m venv /opt/ansible-runtime --clear
+    ${PYTHON_EXEC_PATH} -m venv /opt/ansible-runtime --clear
 
     # The vars used to prepare the Ansible runtime venv
     PIP_OPTS+=" --constraint global-requirement-pins.txt"
@@ -91,9 +91,9 @@ function build_ansible_runtime_venv {
     fi
 
     # Add SELinux support to the venv
-    if [ -d "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/selinux/" ]; then
-      rsync -avX /usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/selinux/ /opt/ansible-runtime/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/selinux/
-      rsync -avX /usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/_selinux.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so /opt/ansible-runtime/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/
+    if [ -d "/usr/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/selinux/" ]; then
+      rsync -avX /usr/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/selinux/ /opt/ansible-runtime/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/selinux/
+      rsync -avX /usr/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/_selinux.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so /opt/ansible-runtime/lib64/python3.8/site-packages/
     fi
 }