from mapscript import mapObj,layerObj wkt = '''PROJCS["Sierra Leone 1968 / UTM zone 28N",GEOGCS["Sierra Leone 1968",DATUM["Sierra_Leone_1968",SPHEROID["Clarke 1880 (RGS)",6378249.145,293.465,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7012"]],TOWGS84[-88,4,101,0,0,0,0],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6175"]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],UNIT["degree",0.01745329251994328,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","4175"]],UNIT["metre",1,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],PARAMETER["central_meridian",-15],PARAMETER["scale_factor",0.9996],PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],AUTHORITY["EPSG","2161"],AXIS["Easting",EAST],AXIS["Northing",NORTH]]''' m = mapObj('') m.setWKTProjection(wkt) lyr = layerObj(m) lyr.setWKTProjection(wkt)