diff --git a/kombu/asynchronous/timer.py b/kombu/asynchronous/timer.py
index 21ad37c14..8feece314 100644
--- a/kombu/asynchronous/timer.py
+++ b/kombu/asynchronous/timer.py
@@ -13,23 +13,24 @@
 
 from kombu.log import get_logger
 
-try:
-    from pytz import utc
-except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover
-    utc = None
+
+if sys.version_info >= (3, 9):
+    from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
+else:
+    from backports.zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
 
 __all__ = ('Entry', 'Timer', 'to_timestamp')
 
 logger = get_logger(__name__)
 
 DEFAULT_MAX_INTERVAL = 2
-EPOCH = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0).replace(tzinfo=utc)
+EPOCH = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0).replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo("UTC"))
 IS_PYPY = hasattr(sys, 'pypy_version_info')
 
 scheduled = namedtuple('scheduled', ('eta', 'priority', 'entry'))
 
 
-def to_timestamp(d, default_timezone=utc, time=monotonic):
+def to_timestamp(d, default_timezone=ZoneInfo("UTC"), time=monotonic):
     """Convert datetime to timestamp.
 
     If d' is already a timestamp, then that will be used.
diff --git a/requirements/test.txt b/requirements/test.txt
index 9b8ca320f..d12f7c416 100644
--- a/requirements/test.txt
+++ b/requirements/test.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-pytz>dev
 pytest~=7.0.1
 pytest-sugar
 Pyro4
+backports.zoneinfo>=0.2.1; python_version < '3.9'
diff --git a/t/unit/utils/test_json.py b/t/unit/utils/test_json.py
index 6af1c13be..1a83b5199 100644
--- a/t/unit/utils/test_json.py
+++ b/t/unit/utils/test_json.py
@@ -1,15 +1,19 @@
 from collections import namedtuple
 from datetime import datetime
 from decimal import Decimal
+import sys
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock, Mock
 from uuid import uuid4
 
 import pytest
-import pytz
 
 from kombu.utils.encoding import str_to_bytes
 from kombu.utils.json import _DecodeError, dumps, loads
 
+if sys.version_info >= (3, 9):
+    from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
+else:
+    from backports.zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
 
 class Custom:
 
@@ -24,7 +28,7 @@ class test_JSONEncoder:
 
     def test_datetime(self):
         now = datetime.utcnow()
-        now_utc = now.replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc)
+        now_utc = now.replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo("UTC"))
         stripped = datetime(*now.timetuple()[:3])
         serialized = loads(dumps({
             'datetime': now,