diff --git a/manifests/function/phase-helpers/pause_bmh/kubectl_pause_bmh.sh b/manifests/function/phase-helpers/pause_bmh/kubectl_pause_bmh.sh
index 181979077..6d9dec334 100644
--- a/manifests/function/phase-helpers/pause_bmh/kubectl_pause_bmh.sh
+++ b/manifests/function/phase-helpers/pause_bmh/kubectl_pause_bmh.sh
@@ -17,6 +17,5 @@ set -xe
 echo "Annotating BMH objects with a pause label in cluster with kubectl context ${KCTL_CONTEXT}" 1>&2
 kubectl annotate \
   --context $KCTL_CONTEXT \
-  --namespace $CLUSTER_NAMESPACE \
   --overwrite \
   -f $RENDERED_BUNDLE_PATH baremetalhost.metal3.io/paused=true 1>&2
diff --git a/manifests/phases/executors.yaml b/manifests/phases/executors.yaml
index 73f14ffea..23f9ec8f6 100644
--- a/manifests/phases/executors.yaml
+++ b/manifests/phases/executors.yaml
@@ -396,13 +396,10 @@ apiVersion: airshipit.org/v1alpha1
 kind: GenericContainer
 metadata:
   name: kubectl-pause-bmh
-  labels:
-    airshipit.org/deploy-k8s: "false"
 spec:
   image: quay.io/airshipit/toolbox:latest
   hostNetwork: true
   envVars:
-  - CLUSTER_NAMESPACE=default
   - RESOURCE_GROUP_FILTER=metal3.io
   - RESOURCE_VERSION_FILTER=v1alpha1
   - RESOURCE_KIND_FILTER=BareMetalHost