diff --git a/Changelog.draft.rst b/Changelog.draft.rst
index 8b599f9..eeb6c1f 100644
--- a/Changelog.draft.rst
+++ b/Changelog.draft.rst
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ Changes
 Bug Fixes
 ---------
 
+* Makefile: docutils: work whether python extension is stripped or not
+
 
 Pending for the next major release
 ==================================
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 125e396..17c277b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 VERSION=4.0.16
 TARGZ=offlineimap_$(VERSION).tar.gz
 SHELL=/bin/bash
+RST2HTML=`type rst2html 2>/dev/null && echo rst2html || echo rst2html.py`
 
 all: build
 
@@ -44,9 +45,9 @@ man:
 
 doc:
 	@$(MAKE) -C docs
-	rst2html.py README.rst readme.html
-	rst2html.py SubmittingPatches.rst SubmittingPatches.html
-	rst2html.py Changelog.rst Changelog.html
+	$(RST2HTML) README.rst readme.html
+	$(RST2HTML) SubmittingPatches.rst SubmittingPatches.html
+	$(RST2HTML) Changelog.rst Changelog.html
 
 targz: ../$(TARGZ)
 ../$(TARGZ):
diff --git a/docs/Makefile b/docs/Makefile
index 3ee4bbd..fd1153e 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile
+++ b/docs/Makefile
@@ -5,18 +5,20 @@ SOURCES = $(wildcard *.rst)
 HTML_TARGETS = $(patsubst %.rst,%.html,$(SOURCES))
 
 RM = rm
+RST2HTML=`type rst2html 2>/dev/null && echo rst2html || echo rst2html.py`
+RST2MAN=`type rst2man 2>/dev/null && echo rst2man || echo rst2man.py`
 
 all: html
 
 html: $(HTML_TARGETS)
 
 $(HTML_TARGETS): %.html : %.rst
-	rst2html.py $? $@
+	$(RST2HTML) $? $@
 
 man: offlineimap.1
 
 offlineimap.1: MANUAL.rst
-	rst2man.py MANUAL.rst offlineimap.1
+	$(RST2MAN) MANUAL.rst offlineimap.1
 	cp -f offlineimap.1 ..
 
 clean: