Captain Graeme Smith praised South Africa for not running "out of puff" while his England counterpart Andrew Strauss said his team's defeat in the fourth and final Test left a "bitter taste".
After letting a battling England off the hook in two of the previous three Tests, Smith said his team had been long overdue a win.
The hosts levelled the series at 1-1 after winning the match by an innings and 74 runs at the Wanderers on Sunday.
"We feel very happy and, if I'm honest, we could easily be sitting here 3-1 up. We just lacked the knockout blows in Centurion and Cape Town," Smith told a news conference.
"England showed great resilience and played very well in Durban but we've played the better cricket in three of the tests.
"It could have been easy for us to run out of puff after the disappointment of Cape Town but I'm really proud of the way the guys played here. It would have been so easy to say we've come close twice and then not turn up here.
"But I think we were the hungrier team and we have a real drive to be better," he added.
England escaped with draws from the first and third Tests with their last pair not out, while they won by an innings and 98 runs in Durban.
Strauss, who was dismissed by the first ball of the Test, blamed his team's downfall on the opening day of the Test when they were bowled out for 180.
"It was three-and-a-half pretty frustrating days. When you lose four wickets in the first hour of a Test, it's always hard dragging it back and you have to give South Africa credit for not letting us back in," Strauss said.
"They kept the pressure on us after lunch on the first day and then were able to build a sizeable lead.
"We were below par and it was a disappointing end to what has been a very successful tour; we've definitely made improvements.
"Today does leave a bit of a bitter taste and we'll have to take the loss on the chin; it wasn't a very good performance," he added.
UMPIRE CONTROVERSY
Strauss refused to blame the controversy over the umpire decision review system for England's defeat.
On Friday, Smith appeared to edge a ball early in his innings to the wicketkeeper but was not given out by the umpire -- a decision upheld after a referral.
England said third umpire Daryl Harper had not had the volume turned up on his replay monitor, so missing what they said was an audible nick. The International Cricket Council (ICC) rejected the suggestion.
Smith, who went on to score 105, felt England spent too much time looking back on the incident rather then trying to salvage the Test.
"It made us happy England expended so much energy over it and it made them lose focus, while we were able to concentrate on our own game," he said.
Strauss added: "The review system generally worked well, we had more right decisions. We were far more frustrated by the way we played and our position in the match.
"Often in games where you are behind, you tend to clutch at straws and things don't go your way.
"We're under no illusions that we need to get better, we're not good enough yet. Only three of our batsmen had decent series and you're not going to win many series like that."
