diff --git a/pkg/k8sapi/discovery.go b/pkg/k8sapi/discovery.go
index d338b9ecac..2269f62349 100644
--- a/pkg/k8sapi/discovery.go
+++ b/pkg/k8sapi/discovery.go
@@ -14,12 +14,12 @@ import (
 
 	clientset "k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
 
-	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/pkg/k8sclient"
 	v1 "k8s.io/api/core/v1"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/fields"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
+	"k8s.io/client-go/rest"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/tools/cache"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/util/workqueue"
 
@@ -83,7 +83,12 @@ func NewController(clientset kubernetes.Interface) *Controller {
 
 // CreateKubeClient creates a k8s client
 func CreateKubeClient() (clientset.Interface, error) {
-	kubeClient := k8sclient.GetKubeClient()
+	kubeConfig, err := rest.InClusterConfig()
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	kubeClient := kubernetes.NewForConfigOrDie(kubeConfig)
+
 	// Informers don't seem to do a good job logging error messages when it
 	// can't reach the server, making debugging hard. This makes it easier to
 	// figure out if apiserver is configured incorrectly.