diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index c812083..ed74603 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-requests==2.24.0
 mypy==0.710
 autoflake==1.3.1
 black==19.10b0
diff --git a/slurm/install/setup.py b/slurm/install/setup.py
index eea392f..76d3714 100644
--- a/slurm/install/setup.py
+++ b/slurm/install/setup.py
@@ -132,8 +132,7 @@ def run(self) -> None:
     },
     install_requires=[
         "typing_extensions==3.7.4.3",
-        "zipp==3.19.1",
-        "requests == 2.24.0",
+        "zipp==3.19.1"
     ],
     tests_require=["pytest==3.2.3"],
     cmdclass={"test": PyTest, "format": Formatter, "types": TypeChecking},
diff --git a/slurm/src/slurmcc/__init__.py b/slurm/src/slurmcc/__init__.py
index 09633d7..1651e6e 100644
--- a/slurm/src/slurmcc/__init__.py
+++ b/slurm/src/slurmcc/__init__.py
@@ -5,7 +5,13 @@
 import random
 from typing import Any, Callable, Optional
 
-import requests
+try:
+    from requests.exceptions import ConnectionError
+except ImportError:
+    # this is only used during live testing with scalelib, so this should never happen
+    import logging
+    logging.exception()
+    ConnectionError = RuntimeError
 
 
 class AzureSlurmError(RuntimeError):
@@ -22,7 +28,7 @@ def wrapped(func: Callable) -> Any:
 def chaos_mode(func: Callable, action: Optional[Callable] = None) -> Callable:
     def default_action() -> Any:
         raise random.choice(
-            [RuntimeError, ValueError, requests.exceptions.ConnectionError]
+            [RuntimeError, ValueError, ConnectionError]
         )("Random failure")
 
     action = action or default_action