from mapscript import mapObj,layerObj wkt = '''PROJCS["Hartebeesthoek94 / Lo29",GEOGCS["Hartebeesthoek94",DATUM["Hartebeesthoek94",SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],TOWGS84[0,0,0,0,0,0,0],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6148"]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],UNIT["degree",0.01745329251994328,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","4148"]],UNIT["metre",1,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator_South_Orientated"],PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],PARAMETER["central_meridian",29],PARAMETER["scale_factor",1],PARAMETER["false_easting",0],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],AUTHORITY["EPSG","2053"],AXIS["Y",WEST],AXIS["X",SOUTH]]''' m = mapObj('') m.setWKTProjection(wkt) lyr = layerObj(m) lyr.setWKTProjection(wkt)