diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-clock-localtime-basis-localtime.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-clock-localtime-basis-localtime.args
index 24fe89ca5faf93b0692e6e7d3621189e83b8fbfb..ab9e9797bc2ad5b7f3048929790baa73d18fa4f3 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-clock-localtime-basis-localtime.args
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-clock-localtime-basis-localtime.args
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin HOME=/home/test USER=test LOGNAME=test QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none \
 /usr/bin/qemu -S -M pc -m 214 -smp 1 -nographic \
--monitor unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait -rtc base=2009-02-14T01:31:30 \
+-monitor unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait -rtc base=2009-02-14T00:01:30 \
 -no-acpi -boot c -usb -hda /dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1 -net none -serial none \
 -parallel none
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index c8b385722489abb731320ad184847eff2033e102..dae08d52f5a1a5cc9d881e778539b663c8f7ba07 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -486,6 +486,16 @@ mymain(void)
     if (!abs_top_srcdir)
         abs_top_srcdir = abs_srcdir "/..";
 
+    /* Set the timezone because we are mocking the time() function.
+     * If we don't do that, then localtime() may return unpredictable
+     * results. In order to detect things that just work by a blind
+     * chance, we need to set an virtual timezone that no libvirt
+     * developer resides in. */
+    if (setenv("TZ", "VIR00:30", 1) < 0) {
+        perror("setenv");
+        return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
+
     driver.config = virQEMUDriverConfigNew(false);
     VIR_FREE(driver.config->spiceListen);
     VIR_FREE(driver.config->vncListen);