AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'decode' (Python3.5)

[jonathan chambers]

Trying to use the NP reader on MacOS with sav file saved on windows, using ioUtf8=True:

with savReaderWriter.SavReaderNp(savFileName,ioUtf8=True) as reader:
    print(reader)
    for line in reader:
        print(line)

gives error AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'decode' presumably because the object has been loaded as a string instead of bytes