City qualified for the second-tier continental event by finishing third in the league in their first year of existence, adding to their Telkom Knockout triumph in December.
Tinkler is familiar with the challenges involved in competing in Africa. He guided his ex-club Orlando Pirates to the Confed Cup final in 2015 where they lost to Etoile du Sahel, while he was assistant coach to Roger de Sa when Bucs went down in the Champions League final two years earlier to Egyptian giants Al-Ahly.
"I know it [playing in Africa] and I've been there," said Tinkler, who helped Bafana Bafana win the African Nations Cup as a player in 1996.
"Obviously and very important is that we'll need to put together a strong competitive team again now that we'll also be in involved in Africa so we'll have a lot of depth.
"But now we got time until next year January and we'll start to focus on that. But what is more important is focusing on getting a break, regrouping and getting ready for the start of the league.
"We have to rebuild the whole defense, we need to strengthen upfront, we need to strengthen in the midfield, and this season we managed to achieve that in a very short space of time. To the highest degree, we got players who were some good signings and those players have done extremely well. But now it's about ensuring that next season we see continuity from them and obviously from other players that will come in."
Tinkler is mindful further success will attract more fans to the Citizens, who were only formed in July last year when ex-Ajax Cape Town boss John Comitis bought the topflight status of Mpumalanga Black Aces.
"The harsh reality is that people only support teams that are winning and in South Africa. Unfortunately, that is the harsh reality we face," he said.
"Obviously the way we started the season generated a lot of that support and, obviously with that support, the players kept being motivated to achieve more."