diff --git a/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller.go b/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller.go
index 50bf90cb29e..a0bf0737156 100644
--- a/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller.go
+++ b/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller.go
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ type Controller struct {
 
 // NewController creates a new Controller to ensure system namespaces exist.
 func NewController(clientset kubernetes.Interface, namespaceInformer coreinformers.NamespaceInformer) *Controller {
-	systemNamespaces := []string{metav1.NamespaceSystem, metav1.NamespacePublic, v1.NamespaceNodeLease}
+	systemNamespaces := []string{metav1.NamespaceSystem, metav1.NamespacePublic, v1.NamespaceNodeLease, metav1.NamespaceDefault}
 	interval := 1 * time.Minute
 
 	return &Controller{
diff --git a/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller_test.go b/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller_test.go
index 7368ed590f6..8120930a81e 100644
--- a/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controlplane/controller/systemnamespaces/system_namespaces_controller_test.go
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ func Test_Controller(t *testing.T) {
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
+				{"create", "namespaces"},
 			},
 		},
 		{
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ func Test_Controller(t *testing.T) {
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
+				{"create", "namespaces"},
 			},
 		},
 		{
@@ -61,19 +63,28 @@ func Test_Controller(t *testing.T) {
 			actions: [][]string{
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
+				{"create", "namespaces"},
 			},
 		},
 		{
 			name:       "two system namespaces",
 			namespaces: []string{metav1.NamespaceSystem, metav1.NamespacePublic},
+			actions: [][]string{
+				{"create", "namespaces"},
+				{"create", "namespaces"},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name:       "three namespaces",
+			namespaces: []string{metav1.NamespaceSystem, metav1.NamespacePublic, v1.NamespaceNodeLease},
 			actions: [][]string{
 				{"create", "namespaces"},
 			},
 		},
 
 		{
-			name:       "the three namespaces",
-			namespaces: []string{metav1.NamespaceSystem, metav1.NamespacePublic, v1.NamespaceNodeLease},
+			name:       "the four namespaces",
+			namespaces: []string{metav1.NamespaceSystem, metav1.NamespacePublic, v1.NamespaceNodeLease, v1.NamespaceDefault},
 		},
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/controlplane/instance.go b/pkg/controlplane/instance.go
index 23549af2623..a209bf74ea4 100644
--- a/pkg/controlplane/instance.go
+++ b/pkg/controlplane/instance.go
@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@ func (m *Instance) InstallLegacyAPI(c *completedConfig, restOptionsGetter generi
 	controllerName := "bootstrap-controller"
 	client := kubernetes.NewForConfigOrDie(c.GenericConfig.LoopbackClientConfig)
 	// Kubernetes clusters contains the following system namespaces:
-	// kube-system, kube-node-lease, kube-public
+	// kube-system, kube-node-lease, kube-public, default
 	m.GenericAPIServer.AddPostStartHookOrDie("start-system-namespaces-controller", func(hookContext genericapiserver.PostStartHookContext) error {
 		go systemnamespaces.NewController(client, c.ExtraConfig.VersionedInformers.Core().V1().Namespaces()).Run(hookContext.StopCh)
 		return nil